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THE BASTILE. 



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THE FOES 



French Revolution 



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CENTRALIZATION AND ANARCHY 



Hermann Lieb 

Author of " History of the German People/ 
" The Protective Tariff," Etc. 

V n 



AUG 83 1889 ' 



CHICAGO NEW YORK — SAN FRANCISCO 

BELFORD, CLARKE & CO. 



or COMOftBflt I 

washiwqtomI 



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COPYRIGHT BY 
BELFORD, CLARKE & CO. 

1889 



DONOHUE & HENNEBEKRY 

PRINTERS AND BINDERS 
CHICAGO. 



PREFACE. 

My motives in writing this volume were threefold: 
First, this being the centennial year of the French Revolu- 
tion, a short review of its causes, its course, audits results, 
appear to me to be desired by a class of readers who have 
neither the time nor the opportunity to make an extended 
study of this event. 

Second, in this age of research, the most valuable 
concern of history is not so much'the facts and dates as 
the motives which impelled its principal actors. 

Such being the case, I have not presumed to write a 
history of the French Eevolution, but have endeavored 
to show its legitimacy and point out some of the causes of 
its partial miscarriage. 

My third and principal motive, however, was a sincere 
desire to strengthen, by way of comparison, the faith of 
the American yonth in the system of free and independent 
States, as the only system capable of resisting all attacks 
against the integrity of a republic from without and 
within. 

During the last hundred years, France has experienced 
many violent changes; but one only has risen to the magni- 
tude of a revolution, if by this term a complete political, 
social, and economic transformation is meant — snch was the 
tremendous upheaval of 1789. 

In the extent of its influence upon the destinies of 
France and upon the advancement of Continental Europe, 
the French Revolution forms the second grand epoch in 
the history of human progress, and its effect upon the 
material well-being of mankind was as beueficial a.? was 
the Reformation upon their moral and intellectual condi- 



vi PREFACE. 

tion; to freedom of thought the Revolution added freedom 
of action. 

Few writers of prominence, other than French, have 
treated this great event with absolute candor and impar- 
tiality, and it has required almost a century even to par- 
tially obliterate the impression made upon the English- 
speaking public by the passionate tirades of the able but 
prejudiced Edmund Burke. 

Some writers, with the evident purpose of warping 
public sentiment, have sought to convey the idea that the 
''Reign of Terror,'' 1793-1794, was the logical and 
necessary consequence of the popular movement of 1789; 
others, influenced by predilections for a given form of gov- 
ernment, have ignored causes and exaggerated facts; 
others, again, assert, and their theory has been accepted 
by many as conclusive, that the philosophers of the 18th 
century were the principal cause; others still, have fixed 
certain periods when the revolutionary movement began, 
and others have even ventured to state when the Revolu- 
tion was born. 

French writers, those generally with the prefix De, as 
De Maister and De Saint Martin, contend that the Reign 
of Terror was an expiation for the execution of the king. 
On the other hand revolutionary fanaticism manifestsitself 
in socialistic writings such as Louis Blanc's, who would 
raise a Pantheon to the memory of Jacobinism, which, 
as he expresses it, " alone represents the Revolution in its 
purity, its truth and its ideal." And last, but not least, 
we have our ecclesiastical historians who picture events in 
the light of religious dogmatism. These claim that irre- 
ligion transplanted from England to the soil of faithful 
France, brought about the Revolution. 

Such conflicting opinions regarding the causes of the 
catastrophe necessarily obscure individual judgment. 
Every candid observer, however, must come to the conclu- 



PREFACE. vii 

sion that the French Kevolution was not brought about by 
irreligion, nor mainly by the philosophers, or in fact by 
any other external agency; that the exact time or even the 
period of its beginning can not be conjectured; but that it 
was the slow, almost imperceptible but steady, process of 
the inexorable law of evolution, which impels humanity 
with unfailing precision toward a better condition, and 
that the crash which came was but a manifestation of this 
law. 

The French people are often charged with frivolity 
and fickleness of character, and that, consequently, there 
might not have been sufficient cause to justify the overturn. 
A search for the causes in the economic rather than in 
the political conditions of a people must govern the seeker 
for truth. The most essential thing in society to know, 
are the small details of a man's social life; the every-day 
well-being, the hardships and vicissitudes of the laboring 
poor. The stomach of the man and of his family — their 
daily wants and surroundings — are of more importance to 
them than abstract principles or political theories. The 
application of this rule to the case of France previous to 
] 789 will readily convince the most conservative that .her 
people had abundant reasons for revolting. 

The other charge, repeatedly made against the French 
people, that they were incapable of self-government, 
is disproved by the fact that centuries before the 
Eevolution they satisfactoi'ily managed their own local 
affairs, and it has been my endeavor to show, that the 
partial failure of their efforts was due to the persistent 
refusal of a few self -constituted managers to intrust them 
with all the duties and responsibilities pertaining to the 
sovereignty of a people, rather than to their individual or 
collective deficiencies. 

Hermakk Lieb. 

Chicago, July 14th, 1880. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 
The Ancient Regime, 9 

CHAPTER II. 
Louis XIV. and His Economic Policy, . . . . 14 

CHAPTER III. 
Loiris XV. AND THE PHILOSOPHIC Age, .... 23 

CHAPTER. IV. 
Reign op Louis XVI. to the Beginning op the Revo- 
lution, . " . . 37 

CHAPTER V. 
The Irkepressible Conflict, 35 

CHAPTER VL 
The National Assembly, 46 

CHAPTER Vll. 
The Bastile, 57 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Assault on the Bastile, . 66 

CHAPTER IX. 
Immediate Consequences op the Fall op the Bastile, . 78 

CHAPTER X. 
Abolition op the Feudal System — Lapayette's Bill op 

Rights, 86 

CHAPTER XL 
Counter-Revolutionary Conspiracy — Women op Paris 

March to Versailles, 95 

CHAPTER XII. 
Confiscation op Church Property — Farra'b Conspiracy 

— Mirabeau on Franklin, 110 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Festival op Confederation, 120 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Counter Revolutionary Conspiracies, .... 129 

CHAPTER XV. 
Marat, 136 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Death op Mirabeau — The King's Flight, . , . 142 



CHAPTER XVII. 
The Massacre of the Champ De Mars, .... 151 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Pilnitz Manifesto, ...... 160 

CHAPTER XIX. 
The Legislative Assembly, 164 

CHAPTER XX. 

The Girondist Ministry — Madame Roland, . . 177 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Description op the Girondist Ministry — The Country 

IN Danger, 189 

CHAPTER XXII. 
The Duke of Brunswick's Manifesto, .... 198 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Anarchism Rampant — The Massacres of September, . 207 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
The Battle of Valmy, 217 

CHAPTER XXV. 
The National Convention, 283 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
The Girondist Supremacy, 230 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Trial and Execution of Lours XVI., .... 243 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
French "Unity," 261 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Overthrow of the Girondists, , . . . . . 268 

CHAPTER XXX. 
Decree of Accusation of the Girondists, . . . 287 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Trial and Execution op the Girondists — Death op 

Marat, 295 

CHAPTER XXXII. 
Execution of Bailly, Madame Roland and Danton — 

Destruction op Hebertists, 309 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 
Regulating Religion — Robespierre Executed — Reign 
OF Terror Ended, 332 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



THE BASXIIvE;— Frontispiece. 



Page of Illus- 

subjkct tration 

Matiek. Page. 

Louis XVI., . 27 11^ 

Saluting the American Flag, .... 29 17^ 

Lafayette, 34 23' 

Desmoulins in the Garden op the Palace Royal, 56 29 

Storming of the Bastile, 72 35 

Bailly, 81 41 

MiRABEAU, 91 47 ' 

Banquet of the Royal Guards at Versailles, 98 53 
The Women op Paris on their Way to Ver- 
sailles TO Bring Back the King, . . . 102 59 

TlIEORIGNE, . 105 65^ 

Lafayette Kissing the Hand of the Queen on 
THE Balcony of the Chateau at Versail- 
les, 108 71 

Meeting Place of the Jacobin Club, . . Ill 77' 
Confederation Festival at the Champ de Mars, 

July 14, 1790, 124 83 

Drouet, ......... 147 89- 

Barnave, 149 93- 

Lafayette Firing Upon the Petition - Signers 

at the Champ de Mars, 157 99 

Gensonnb, o . 175 105' 

Mme. Roland, 179 111'' 

Brissot, 183 117 



Page or Illus- 

Subject tration 

Matter. Page. 

Vergniaud, 193 123'' 

Barbaroux, , 203 129- 

Petion, . ,208 185/ 

Le Due De Chartres, Louis Philippe, . . 221 141 

Roi^AND, 232 147 

Marat, 238 153 

The Temple, Louis XVI. Prison, . . . 243 157 

Santerrb, 252 163 

Louis XVL Taking Leave op His Family the 

Day Before Execution, 257 169 

Execution of Louis XVL, ..... 260 175 

Danton, 274 183 

Barrere, 287 189 

Assassination op Marat, 302 195 

Charlotte Corday, 303 205 

Marie Antoinette, 303 213 

FouQUiER Tinvillb, 305 223 

CoLLOT D'Herbois, 311 233 

Le Due D'Orleans, 312 243 

Paper Money of the Republic, .... 316 253 

Paper Money of the Republic, . . . 316 263 

Camille Desmoulins, 319 273 

Barras, 323 283 

Robespierre, 325 293 

Billaud-Varennes, 327 303 

Tallien, 328 313 

CouTHON, 329 319 

Saint Just, 330 323 

Carnot. . 331 329 



THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 
CENTRALIZATION AND ANARCHY. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ANCIENT REGIME. 

" I look back for a moment/' says De Tocqueville, " on 
the situation of France seven hundred years ago, wlien 
the territory was divided amongst a small number of fami- 
lies who were the owners of the soil and the rulers of the 
inhabitants. The right of governing descended with the 
family inheritance from generation to generation. Force 
was the only means by which man could act on man, and 
landed property was- the sole source of power. Soon, 
however, the political power of the clergy was formed 
and began to increase. The clergy opened their ranks to 
all classes, to the poor and the rich, the vassal and the 
lord. Through the church equality penetrated into the 
Government, and he who, as a serf, must have vegetated 
in perpetual bondage, took his place as a priest in the 
midst of nobles, and not infrequently above the heads of 
kings. 

The different relations of men with each other became 
more complicated and numerous as society became more 
stable and civilized, hence the want of civil law was felt, 
and the ministers of the law soon rose from the obscurity 
of the tribunals to appear at the court of their monarch 
by the side of the feudal barons. 

While the kings were ruining themselves by their 
9 



10 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

great enterprises^ and thenobles exhausting their resources 
by private wars^ the lower orders were enriching them- 
selves by commerce. The influence of money began to be 
perceptible in State affairs. The transaction of business 
opened a new road to power, and the financier rose to a 
station of political influence in which he was at once 
flattered and despised. 

Gradually the diffusion of intelligence and the increas- 
ing taste for literature and art caused learning and talent 
to become a means of government; mental ability led to 
social power, and the man of letters took part in the 
affairs of State. 

The value attached to high birth declined just as fast 
as new avenues to power were discovered. In the eleventh 
century nobility was beyond all price; in the thirteenth 
it could be purchased. Nobility was first, conferred by 
gift in 1270, and equality was thus introduced into the 
Government by the aristocracy itself. 

In the course of these seven hundred years it some- 
times happened that the nobles, in order to resist the 
authority of the Crown, or to diminish the power of their 
rivals, granted some political influence to the common peo- 
ple. Or, more frequently, the King permitted the lower 
orders to have a share in the Government with the inten- 
tion of depressing the aristocracy." 

Of these lower orders, however, consisting on the one 
hand of the merchants and professional men of cities and 
towns, and on the other of the peasants, the former were 
almost the exclusive beneficiaries of such royal or seign- 
orial concessions; so that as far as the numerous class 
of agriculturists were concerned, their condition as late as 
the eighteenth century was not materially improved. It 
may then be said that just previous to the Eevolution, 
France presented the picture of a State, which, apparently 
had adopted some of the progressive forms of the more 




LOUIS XVI. 



THE ANCIENT REGIME. 11 

enlightened countries and slightly modified tlie ancient 
regime, yet, contained all the repulsive features of feu- 
dality. Her state recognized, in fact, only three political 
factors — the king, the nobility and the higher clergy. 
With the exception of a comparatively small number of 
burghers, whose wealth, superior intelligence and lit- 
erary attainments compelled respectful recognition, and 
who, under the designation of '^ Third Estate,^' as early 
as 1314, acquired a small share of political influence in the 
State, the great mass of her people had no voice in the 
administration of public affairs. In the absence of legal or 
traditional restrictions, however, little impediment met the 
upward tendency of the common people; consequently, the 
equalizing process between them and the bourgeois class 
was in constant operation, and as in the quarrels of cities 
and towns against the encroachments of the nobility, the 
peasant generally sided with the burghers, this equalizing 
process was accelerated by a mutuality of interests. The 
early history of France is almosi; a constant struggle 
between the landed aristocracy and the burghers of cities, 
and of revolts of the former against royal authority. 
Under the system of seignorial independence, the French 
monarchy was a mere shadow; to gain substance it had to 
consolidate the parts. It was centralization or death. 

It was only by slow degrees, however, that royalty 
finally succeeded in emancipating itself from its quasi- 
dependency upon the landed aristocracy, and the almost 
sovereign knighthood of the middle ages. This was 
accomplished by an alliance with the Catholic hierarchy 
and the burghers of cities. By this means the Crown 
gradually succeeded in neutralizing the power of the great 
vassals, and in drawing them to its support. The burgh- 
ers, however, were excluded from the new partnership. 
The abuses of feudality which oppressed the rural popula- 
tion survived the political destruction of the system. 



12 THE FOES OF TEE FRENCH BEVOLUTION. 

From the 13th to the 18th century the process of political 
centralization continued. The wars with England, and 
the unsettled state of the country presented to Charles 
the VII. — between 1439 and 1445 — the opportunity of 
obtaining from his parliaments the sanction for the first 
standing army in Europe, and, at the same time, the per- 
mission to raise a tax for its support, this tax to be col- 
lected by officers of the crown. The establishment of a 
fiscal machinery covering the whole country enabled the 
King to drive the first wedge into the old system. 

To fully appreciate the far-reaching influence of this 
immense machinery of the central administration, it is 
only necessary, in imagination, to transplant the extensive 
and all-powerful revenue machinery of the United States, 
with its collectors, its courts, and its unnumbered mar- 
shals to inf orce its decree, upon the soil of the quasi-political 
independent seignories or provinces of ancient France. The 
Crown was thus possessed of a well organized body of 
agents, distributed in all parts of the kingdom, absolutely 
independent of the landed aristocracy, and subject only to 
the orders of the central power. Louis XI., son andsucces- 
sor of Charles VII., used these new prerogatives with 
crushing effect, bringing the recalcitrant feudal aristocracy 
under control by causing a number of them to pass under 
the ax of the executioner. 

These innovations and centralizing methods were 
received by the burghers of cities and the peasants in the 
light of divine interposition. They believed themselves 
relieved from an unbearable system of spoliation, and, at 
the same time, felt assured that a consolidated power would 
be able to resist any further encroachment of their heredi- 
tary English foe upon French territory. 

From this period the monarchy of France was able to 
stand upon its own feet ; but being uncontrolled it soon 
passed into a state of absolutism. The Crown had given 



THE ANOIENT REGIME. 13 

security to the towns and cities, but had taken away their 
communal independence; the peasantry had exchanged 
two masters for three. 

Francis I., having obtained from the Pope the privi- 
lege of participating in the appointment of the Eoman 
Catholic Clergy in his realm, this influential body became 
subservient to his wishes. He surrounded his throne with 
the influences of Italian culture, and all the allurements 
of modern court etiquette. Still, he never lost sight of the 
warlike state of Europe, and exerted every effort in his 
power to incite the pride, patriotism and love of glory of 
his subjects, that they might be prepared for the impend- 
ing struggle between himself and Emperor Charles V. 
of Germany. 

With this object in view, he gradually drew the 
nobility from the seclusion of their castles into the circle 
of his brilliant court. Under his reign and his success- 
ors, the revenues were increased and the army brought to 
a high state of efficiency; so that when the religious wars 
were over there was no power in France able to cope 
with the royal authority. 

Sometimes a schism occurred, ^tis true, between the 
members of the reigning family, which opportunity was 
seized by the nobility to repossess themselves of their 
former state of independence; but the energetic manner 
with which Eichelieu and Mazarin crushed the last efforts 
of the Fronde, forever extinguished seigniorial independ- 
ence in France. 



CHAPTER 11. 

LOUIS XIV. AND HIS ECONOMIC POLICY. 

This King not only destroyed the last vestige of aristo- 
cratic power, he annihilated the last vestige of commer- 
cial liberty, the prerogatives of Provincial Parliaments 
and of the States General; all was obliterated in the inter- 
est of the Crown. He considered himself the source of 
all power and all right in the State. Having read in the 
Old Testament what was said of the Omnipotence and the 
heavenly origin of Monarchy, he was convinced that God, 
who had placed kings over mankind, had also vouchsafed 
to them unquestionable control over their subjects. He 
promulgated laws, raised revenues, and changed their 
charters at pleasure. His ministers were mere clerks, 
whose only duty it was to work out the details of his 
policy and formulate his decrees. M. Colbert, an able 
man, who for nearly a quarter of a century had been his 
prime minister, may be said to have organized and 
regenerated the civil administration of his kingdom. 
Unfortunately for the country as well as for the king, 
whose paternalistic propensities were thus sustained, 
Colbert was an adherent of that mistaken governmental 
theory, " that the prosperity and progress of a people can 
best be promoted by a system of commercial isolation and 
restriction." 

The magnificence of Louis XIV. 's court gratified 
the pride of the French, while the many brilliant 
victories of Turenne, Luxembourg and others gratified 
their love of glory; that despot, to this day, is proudly 
referred to by his countrymen, as " Ludovico Magna!" 

U 



LOTUS XIV. AND EI8 EGONOMIC POLICY. 15 

He was a great king, considered from the stand-point in 
which royal greatness was viewed in those days. He was 
great vn. persecuting the Huguenots at home, while 
encouraging the Protestants in Germany, to further his 
ends; he was great in overawing his neighbors, while he 
appropriated large portions of their territory; he was 
great in the erection of costly and magnificent palaces and 
monuments, those at Versailles costings it is estimated, 
1200,000,000. And he, unquestionably, surpassed in 
greatness all his predecessors in the way in which he 
divided his political power with his mistresses. 

It is, also, noted as an evidence of his greatness, that 
in the midst of the extravagances and festivities of his court, 
the excitement of the chase, the pleasures of theaters 
and of women, he never lost sight of the great interests of 
state, nor neglected to encourage literature, the arts and 
science. 

When these efforts and their motives, however, are 
calmly considered, they are found generally to have been 
exerted in the wrong direction, and more with a view to 
strengthen his personal sway than to improve the condi- 
tion of the people. 

He encouraged literature when the authors sang his 
praises, but sternly suppressed it when his methods were 
adversely criticised. He was the incarnation of the prin- 
ciples of state socialism, with his Majesty as the director- 
in-chief. He encouraged great industries, but placed the 
most important under state control. Such a policy had 
the natural effect of discouraging the spirit of private 
enterprise in its incipiency, and in neutralizing the 
spontaneous energies of the people. The blighting effect 
of the principle, "L'Maf c'est moi/' was not only felt in 
all the departments of public affairs, but in the business 
intercourse of the commercial and industrious classes. 
Colbert's efforts were in strict conformity with the patern- 



16 TEE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOL UTION. 

alistic policy of his august Master. Great public works 
were unde»takeu. Some canals were dug; some country 
roads improved; but, wliile the land tenure, with all 
its oppressive features of feudalism remained undis- 
turbed, great canals and splendid roads were of little avail 
to the mass of the people who suffered for want of bread 
and work. Immense private fortunes had been amassed, 
as a logical result of protecting the manufacturing few at 
the expense of the agricultural many. The effort is the 
same, almost invariably the same, whether applied, 
in a monarchy or in a republic; in old Europe or young 
America. 

This immutable truth was recognized a hundred years 
ago by the great Adam Smith, when, in speaking of 
Minister Colbert and his economic system, he said : " M. 
Colbert, the famous minister of Louis XIV., was a man 
of probity, of great industry and knowledge of details; 
of great experience and acuteness in the examination of 
public accounts, and of abilities, in short, every way fitted 
for introducing method and good order in the collection 
and expenditures of the public revenue. But he had 
unfortunately embraced all the prejudices of the mercan- 
tile system of protection, in its nature and essence; a 
system of restraint and regulation, and such as would 
scarcely fail to be agreeable to a laborious and plodding 
class man of business, who had been accustomed to regu- 
late the different dej)artments of public affairs, and to 
establish the necessary checks and controls for confining 
each to its proper sphere; The Industry and commerce of 
a great country he endeavored to regulate upon the same 
model as the departments of a public officer; and instead of 
dlloioing every man to j^ursue Ms own interest in his own 
way upon the literal flan of equality, liherty and justice, 
he bestoiued vpon certain branches of industry extraordi- 
nary privileges, while he laid others under as extraordinary 




SALUTING THE AMERICAN FLAG. 



LOUIS XIY. AND HIS ECONOMIC POLICY. 11 

restraints. He was not only disposed, like other Euro- 
pean ministers, to encourage more the industries of the 
towns than that of the country, but, in order to support 
the industry of the towns he was willing even to depress 
and Jceep doivn that of the country. In order to render 
provisions cheap to the inhabitants of the towns, and, 
thereby to encourage manufactures and. foreign com- 
merce, he prohibited altogether the exportation of grain, 
and thus excluded the inhabitants of the country from 
every foreign market, by far, the most important part of 
the produce of their industry. 

This prohibition, joined to the restraint imposed by 
the ancient provincial laws of France, upon the transporta- 
tion of grain from one province to another, and to the 
arbitrary and degrading taxes which were levied upon the 
cultivators in almost all the provinces, discouraged and 
kept down the agriculture of the country very much below 
the state to which it would naturally have risen in so very 
fertile and so very happy a climate. This state of dis- 
couragement and depression was felt more or less in every 
different part of the country, and many different inquiries 
were set on foot concerning the causes of it. One of those 
causes appeared to be the preference given by the institu- 
tions of M. Colbert to the industry of the towns above 
that of the country. When an agricultural nation 
oppresses, either by high duties or by prohibition, the 
trade of foreign nations it necessarily hurts its own inter- 
est in two different ways. First, by raising the price of 
all foreign goods and of all sorts of manufactures, it 
necessarily lowers the value of the surplus produce of its 
own land, with which it purchases those foreign goods 
and manufactures. Secondly, by giving a sort of monopoly 
of the home-market to its own merchant, artificers and 
manufacturers, it raises the rate of mercantile and manu- 
facturing profit, and consequently either draws from agri- 



IS THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

culture a part of the capital which had before been em- 
ployed in it, or hinders from going to it apart of what would 
have otherwise been invested in it. This policy, there- 
fore, discourages agriculture in two different ways; first, by 
lowering the real value of its produce, and thereby lower- 
ing the rates of its profits ; and, secondly, by raising the 
rate of profit in all other employments. Agriculture is 
then rendered less advantageous, and trade and manufact- 
ure more advantageous than it otherwise would be, and 
every man is tempted by his own interest to turn, as 
much as he can, both his capital and his industry from 
the former to the latter employment." 

Thus, without a correct understanding of the subject, 
many writers speak of this period as one of unusual pros- 
perity for France. There is much misleading general- 
ization indulged in concerning the prosperity of a country. 
The accumulation of great wealth in the hands of the few 
and its lavish display is often confounded with the general 
prosperity of the country. The prosperity of a country 
does not manifest itself in the palaces of the opulent, but 
in the humble cottages of the masses. If the dwellers of 
modest homes are comfortably situated, if they have an 
abundance of work and labor is well remunerated, if the 
great body of the people are amply supplied with the neces- 
saries of life, and first of all, if the tillers of the soil — the 
peasant in France, the farmer in America — are prosperous, 
then, and only then the term, "the general prosperity of 
a country," will have its true meaning. 

Under the system of M. Colbert, that most important 
interest to a nation's prosperity, agriculture, was totally 
neglected, and manufacturers even languished for want 
of a foreign market. Instead of devising a system by 
which the outlet for French product might be enhanced, 
the demand for labor increased, and the necessaries of life 
cheapened, the policy of restriction and scarcity was 



Loms XIV. AND am ECONOMIC POLtcr. 19 

adopted. As overproduction and a surplus of labor follows 
the introduction of this policy with unfailing precision, 
the government soon found itself confronted with the 
dangers incident to these evils, and in order to relieve the 
overstocked labor market, the desperate colonization 
expedient to ISTew France was resorted to. But the ancient 
feudal system being transferred to Canada with the emi- 
grants, this expedient necessarily proved as ineffective as 
it was expensive. Thus, the entire economic system of 
Louis XIV. being opposed to all rational principles, the 
working people could never rise above the condition of 
poverty and unremitting toil, nor the wealth of France be 
permanently increased. 

With all his shortcomings, however, Louis XIV. was 
endowed with many of the attributes which are necessary 
to the success of a great king, but the most essential of 
these qualities, "^a heart in sympathy with the common 
people," he lacked. From his dazzling height his vision 
soared beyond the groveling masses at his feet; they were 
only the clay from which must rise the magnificent mon- 
ument he presumed to rear to his own immortal glory. 

The strength of retaining the consciousness of duty 
when uncontrolled and unrestricted is seldom given to 
mortal man. Louis XIV., who viewed his high office as 
a mystic gift ^^by the grace of God," and was enabled to 
crush all opposition to his supreme will with physical 
force, succumbed, as others had before him, to the tempt- 
ation bf disregarding all maxims of justice and right. 

Thus, the close of the seventeenth century found the 
king's power, which seemed to be limitless abroad, lack- 
ing all the elements of permanency at home. His numer- 
ous wars had exhausted the finances, and the incomes had 
been steadily decreasing for nearly forty years. As early 
as 1693, Archbishop Fenelon addressed his famous letter to 
the King, in which he drew a frightful picture of the fam- 



m THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOL UTION. 

ished condition of France, and attacked the whole policy 
of his government. 

These appeals had not the least effect upon the great 
monarch's course. Fenelon^s criticism annoyed him, and 
when his "Telemaque" appeared, which was a biting satire 
npon Louis' reign, the presumptuous author was banished 
and his books seized by the police. 

The exhaustiye wars waged almost continuously 
toward the close of the 17th century, continued during 
the first thirteen years of the 18th, and when at last, in 
1714, the treaties of Utrecht and Eastadt were signed, 
France was shorn of most of the ground she had gained 
during Louis XI'V.'s reign. In these later years the state 
of the rural population had grown from bad to worse. 
"We are told by contemporaneous writers, that three-fourths 
of the people lived upon barley and oaten bread alone; 
and as for clothing, not one had a crown's worth upon 
his back. Owing to forced emigration to Canada, beg- 
_^gary and death, every seventh house was in ruins ; one- 
sixth of the arable land was thrown out of cultivation, the 
remainder ill-farmed and covered with straggling woods, 
hedges, briars and brush. The highways of the countiy 
and the streets of the towns and burghs were filled with 
beggars, whom famine and nakedness had driven forth. 

Half-starved skeletons clamored around the gates of 
Versailles, and Madame de Maintenon, herself, was mobbed 
by the crowd on entering her carriage. Food riots took 
place in many towns, and some of the royal troops revolted. 
The government credit was at its lowest ebb; still there 
was no retrenchment in the extravagant expenditures of 
the court. France had no constitution, and the slight 
barrier against the absolute will of the monarch were the 
parliaments — the judicial tribunals of the country — clothed 
with one prerogative, that of refusing to enter the royal 
decrees upon their registers, without which, such decrees 



LOUIS XIV. AND HIS EGONOMIG POLICY. 21 

had no legal force. This slight obstacle, however, was 
easily overcome by arbitrary kings, as in case of refusal 
to register, a royal session, lit de justice, was called, at 
which the king appeared in person. At such sessions no 
objections were allowed to be raised, and no debate per- 
mitted. The King commanded the decree to be registered 
par order du Eoi. To show his contempt for these parlia- 
mentary obstructionists Louis XIV. appeared at one of 
these sessions with horsewhip in hand. 

The death of Louis XIV., which occurred on the 1st of 
September, 1715, found no regrets in the hearts of his 
peo]Dle. His last days were days of loneliness and neglect, 
and brought to him the realizing sense that his life, with 
all its magnificence and splendor, had been a failure ; that 
his talents, his energies, his tremendous power and 
influence had been misdirected and misapplied, and that, 
while he himself had been a striking manifestation of the 
law of evolution, he had ignored this inexorable law in 
the affairs of his people ; that, conscious of his power, he 
had never thought for an instant of awakening their 
political sentiments, or allowing them the smallest share 
in the administration of the country. Indeed, his last 
admonition to his great-grandson, afterwards Louis 
XV., then not quite six years of age, confirms this 
view : " My child,^' said he, ^'you are about to become a 
great king. But do not imitate me in my passion for 
building or my love of war. Endeavor, on the contrary, 
to live in peace with the neighboring nations, and strive 
to lessen the burdens of your people, which I, alas, have 
been unable to do." Merely the same antiquated death- 
bed wisdom, death-bed admissions, and death-bed repent- 
ance. Nothing more. 



CHAPTEE III. 

LOTUS XV. AND THE PHILOSOPHICAL AGE. 

In his last will and testament, the Grand Monarch had 
designated the legitimatized son of one of his mistresses, 
and the Duke of Orleans, a dissolute speculator, to act as 
regents during the minority of his great-grandson. The 
Parliament of Paris, however, refused to sanction the first 
of this clause, and declared the Duke the sole legitimate 
regent. The rule of this Prince was distinguished by his 
personal immoralities, and by his shameless efforts to 
restore the ruined finances of the kingdom by sanctioning 
the scheme of the notorious John Law; a scheme which 
threw the country into worse confusion, bringing it to the 
verge of universal bankruptcy. 

The people in the rural districts had long since been 
cured of their love and attachment to their patriarchal 
seigniors; the friendly relations which formerly exi'sted 
between the peasant and his lord had been ruptured by 
the long absences of the latter from the family manor, in 
dancing attendance at court, or serving in the army, his 
estate in the meantime being left in the hands of an 
exacting intendant (agent). The higher clergy, which 
since the days of Charlemagne had owned one-fifth of all 
the lands, absolutely exempt from taxation, in considera- 
tion for which they were expected to care for the helpless 
and unfortunate, to take charge of the hospitals and other 
charitable institutions, had succeeded in shifting these 
responsibilities and duties upon the State. These represen- 
tatives of the humble preacher of love and charity from 
Galilee now turned their eyes in another direction. Their 




LAFAYETTE. 



L0UI8 XV. AND THE PHILOSOPHICAL AGE. S3 

church had been metamorphosed into a powerful and 
wealthy institution, which they intended to hold, possess 
and defend against all comers. More important duties than 
disbursing small portions of their income — amounting to 
one hundred millions a year — among the destitute lambs of 
their flocks, demanded their attention. Their cardinals 
and bishops mingled with the noble courtiers at Ver- 
sailles, and rivaled with them in attracting the eye and 
catching the ear of the King. The doors of the convents, 
built and endowed as asylums for the poor, were now 
closed to the naked and hungry. 

Thus, naturally, the people had ceased to believe in the 
protecting care of the nobility, and in a like degree had 
lost faith in the purity and charity of the church. The 
charge, however, that they had become irreligious is not 
true. It was only the high dignitaries of the church, 
mostly recruited from the nobility, in whom they had lost 
confidence and respect. 

Still, there was one hope left. It was the King. Their 
faith in the goodness and benevolence of their King 
remained unshaken. He was far away, but as soon as 
complaints could reach his ears, help would be forthcom- 
ing. The advent of Louis XV., in 1723, to the throne 
was, therefore, hailed by the people with childish delight. 
For twenty years they had suffered, yet still loving their 
King and hoping. They called him the Bien aime (well 
beloved). Ten years more, and it is reported that their 
''well beloved" had been leading a dissolute life: that he 
maintained a seraglio at one of his hunting castles. The 
strange disappearance of pretty young women gave color 
to the rumor, and a bloody riot in Paris was the conse- 
quence. The royal Bien aime had suddenly lost his pres- 
tige. The last of the people^s idols had now been shat- 
tered by the idol himself. He hardly dared to pay a visit 
to his own capital, and for fear of meeting the gaze of his 



U THE FOES. OF THE FRENCH RE VOL UTIOJV. 

indignant subjects, took a circuitous route in his journey 
from Versailles to Compiegne, wliich to this day is called 
"Ze Chemain de la Revolte." The ^'Best Beloved^' had 
now become the "Best Hated" man in all France. 

He had taxed the recources of the country to the 
utmost, not only to gratify the extravagances of his mis- 
tresses and the enormous expenses of his profligate court, 
but to defray the needs of his endless and needless wars, 
which terminated not only in the loss of nearly all France 
possessed in America, but in the humiliation of her national 
military renown. By tyrannical and imprudent acts, he 
introduced many of the abuses and elements of discord, 
which in time proved so disastrous to the welfare of 
France. 

Personally, he gave the world an example of moral tur- 
pitude such as has only found a counterpart in the most 
depraved of the Roman Emperors. The details of his 
dissolute life and of his miserable death are too revolting 
to relate. 

His base selfishness and complete moral demoralization 
is fully characterized by the expression, "Apres moi le 
deluge," which, in plain language was an openly expressed 
hope, that the rotten governmental structure which he felt 
tottering under his feet might last as long as he did ; this 
expression characterized his criminal indifference to the 
welfare of his subjects. Disgust for a throne which could 
thus be tarnished now pervaded the hearts of the people, 
and severed the last link in the chain, which until now 
had formed the connection between the privileged orders 
and the common people. 

While all avenues of relief seemed now closed to the 
suffering masses, a fourth power, closely allied to the lat- 
ter by daily intercourse and common interests, came 
rapidly to the front. It was the burghers of cities and 
towns, the same class which in the middle age had pro- 



LOUIS XV. AND THE PHILOSOPHICAL AGR 25 

tested against the encroachments of the Feudal system, 
that finally compelled recognition as members of the Pro- 
vincial Parliaments, and of the so-called " Third Estate'^ 
in the States General. 

Under the absolutism of the Louis', this class had 
almost, if not entirely, ceased to be a political factor in 
the country; but its wealth and intelligence, nevertheless, 
exerted considerable social and political influence. It 
filled the civil and military administration with scholars 
and soldiers, and, in time, their membership in the Pro- 
vincial Parliaments perceptibly increased. In the field 
of letters it was represented by such intellectual giants as 
Voltaire, who was the son of the treasurer of the Chamber 
of Accounts; byJean Jacques Rousseau, whose father was 
a watchmaker, and Diderot, the collator of "Dictionaire 
Encyclopedique," whose father was a cutler. 

This class, with its great publicists to the front, now 
stood between the privileged orders and the common peo- 
ple. Diderot's Encyclopedic, which contained the writ- 
ings of the nohlesse litteraire of the 18th century, treated 
all social, religious or political questions boldly and com- 
prehensively. It criticised with severity the immorality 
and profligacy of the higher orders, denounced ancient 
abuses, exposed official corruption and pointed out the 
miseries and hardships of the overtaxed people. It 
undoubtedly had the greatest influence in hastening the 
cataclysm which soon followed. Some of its writers were 
sent to the bastile, and the work itself was several times 
suppressed. As is always the case, these efforts to sup- 
press the truth only render its defense still more formi- 
dable. It did more than any other instrumentality in pre- 
paring the bourgeois-class for the important role it was 
soon called upon to play in the great political drama. It 
formed, so to say, the headwaters of the stream of thought, 
which for some time had taken a revolutionary course. 



S6 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

The Church, that mighty authority of the middle age, 
had ceased to be united, and its infallibility was a thing 
of the past. The State and laws, science, art and litera- 
ture had been monopolized by her, and everything outside 
of her sacred circle had been declared heretical. With 
defection within her own bosom, not only faith, but all 
human exertion, received a tremendous shock. The con- 
viction soon became universal that mankind ought to 
reject all theories the worth of which did not rest upon 
reason and demonstrative proof. The middle age had 
rejected nature, and reared a social edifice upon blind faith 
in the supernatural. Now natural philosophy was seized 
upon as a new dispensation, and it soon began to dawn 
upon the minds of the people that while heaven's bliss was 
much to be desired, it could not have been the intention 
of an All- wise Providence to debar the majority of the peo- 
ple from participating in any of the terrestrial bounties of 
His creation; nor that His sacred laws had been amended 
in favor of a comparatively small number of nobles and 
ecclesiastics, who, in order to maintain these exclusive priv- 
ileges, had formed a combination against the rest of the 
world. Louis XV. died May 10, 1774, a victim to his vices 
and debauchery. 



CHAPTER IV. 

REIGN OF LOUIS XVI. TO THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION 

When Louis XVI., grandson of his predecessor, ascended 
the throne, the whole social and political fabric of France 
was thoroughly worm-eaten and undermined. It is said 
of him, that he was well disposed, but that his weak and 
vacillating character defeated his good intentions. The 
queen, Marie Antoinette, of Austria, to whom he was 
married when a mere boy of sixteen, controlled his official 
actions. Her haughty disposition, and her early training 
among the surroundings of the most exclusive and aristo- 
cratic court of Europe, instinctively led her to oppose all 
innovations, such as the more enlightened age now seemed 
to demand. She therefore systematically thwarted the 
best intentions of the King towards reforming existing 
abuses. Her influence in the ministerial cabinet was 
almost absolute, and the minister who would not readily 
submit to her dictation, or whose policy crossed her own, 
had soon to make room for some more pliant instrument. 
The one wise act of Louis XVI. was to charge M. 
Turgot, one of the most distinguished economists of the 
age, a pupil of Jean Jacques Eousseau and Quesnay, with 
the finances of the kingdom. This statesman went zeal- 
ously at work to improve the financial condition of the 
country, by relieving labor at home of a part of its bur- 
dens, and freeing foreign trade from its vexatious restric- 
tions. " There is only one course open for the re-estab- 
lishment of the finances," said he to the King, " and that 
is by reducing the expenses below the receipts ; sufficiently 
low to economize twenty millions per year. Your majesty 

27 



28 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

must fortify yourself against your generosity. Consider 
from whom the money you are distributing is taken. 
Compare the misery of those from whom you are compelled 
to exact taxes with those who are receiving your favors." 

The King appeared to lend a willing ear to these 
opportune admonitions; the Parliament of Paris, which 
had always stood by ancient abuses, having been recalled 
by the King, against Turgot^s advice, its stubborn 
resistance to his projects of reform, proved to be the first 
spark which kindled the fires of the Revolution. 

The struggle between the Minister and Parliament 
began with the edict removing the restrictions on the 
grain trade, between the different sections of the country. 
The contest was bitter, but Turgot was victorious. The 
next step in the direction of reform were the edicts to 
abolish the system of monopoly in trade; further, the 
relinquishment of corvee, (compulsory labor on public 
roads); the abolition of the guilds, the reduction of 
import duties on articles of daily consumption, etc., etc. 

Turgot's advocacy of these reforms, however, which, in 
the main were intended to relieve the poorer and middle 
classes, were not only antagonized by the Paris Parlia- 
ment, but by the nobility, the higher clergy, bankers, 
protected manufacturers, and most of the Provincial Par- 
liaments. The agitation of these reforms was a menace to 
the old system of privileges, and consequently the privi- 
leged class made his downfall a common cause. 

The weak Louis, who, in spite of his protestations, 
was never in sympathy with Turgors policy, finally 
yielded to their demands, and that able statesman was 
cruelly requested to step aside — the only man who might 
have managed to avert the horrible cataclysm which four- 
teen years after engulfed them fill. 

After a short period, in which the financial affairs of 
the State again fell into confusion, M. Necker, a Geneva 







DESMOULINS IN THE GARDEN OF THE PALAIS ROYAL. 



REION OF LOUIS XVI. S9 

banker, was called to assume charge of the finances. M. 
JSTecker was an able financier and a systematic accountant, 
but unable to map out a comprehensive system of reforms, 
or master the situation. He succeeded in temporarily re- 
lieving the Government's embarrassment with short loans, 
through his own credit and his popularity at the Paris 
Exchange. He inaugurated some salutary methods in his 
department, but never went to the root of the evil. He 
lacked the perceptive genius of Turgot, who had discovered 
the cancer and had the nerve to use the dissecting knife. 
He seemed to have exhausted his resources. In the midst 
of these financial perplexities, the cry for help was heard on 
the other side of the Atlantic. It was the cry of the Ameri- 
can Colonists struggling for independence. ''This event," 
says the American editor of Thiers' ''French Revolution," 
startled France like a thunder-clap. Adieu now to all 
hope of escape from Revolution! The heather is on fire, 
and nothing can check the progress of the conflagration. 
AYithin the precinct of the palace, in the salons of fashion, 
and universally among the common people, nothing is 
talked of but the gallantry of the transatlantic patriots. 
Washington is a hero — Franklin is the philosopher of the 
day." • 

The daily press which had reproduced the "Declara- 
tion •of Independence" and the succeeding hostilities, 
was eagerly read and discussed in all social circles. "VVe 
are told by contemporaneous writers, that the Americans 
were the objects of boundless eulogiums ; that their cause 
was defended by the most forcible arguments, and that it 
would be difficult to describe the excessive joy, the vast 
hopes that were excited by the news of the convocation 
of the first American Congress, the members of which 
were extolled to the skies. The papers were filled with 
such expressions as these: "Let them establish liberty in 
their country, and let them serve as a perpetual example, 



so THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

that princes may not, witliout peril, violate the funda- 
mental laws of their States, or attack with impunity the 
privileges and immunities of their subjects." The cap- 
ture of Burgoyne in 1777 was received in Paris with 
unbounded enthusiasm. The people, the members of the 
cabinet, j^ecker excepted, all favored an open declara- 
tion in aid of struggling America, and the King's reluc- 
tance to a rupture with England being finally overcome, 
the formal acknowledgment of the independence of the 
United States was determined upon. This step implied 
war with Great Britain, and the war came with its immense 
sacrifices in life and treasure. What the representations 
of Benjamin Franklin and Mr. Dean, the American com- 
missioners, could never have brought about, was accom- 
plished by the pressure of warm-hearted, liberty-loving and 
generous Frenchmen. 

France had at that time no cause of complaint against 
England, and as M. ISTecker, the astute minister 'of 
finance, very pointedly stated to the King, in explanation 
of his opposition to this step: "That while he certainly 
wished every success to the noble cause of the American 
Colonists, he felt on the one hand that war ought never to 
be declared without real necessity, and, on the oth'er, that 
no possible concurrence of political results could counter- 
balance, to France, the loss she would sustain, of the 
advantages she might derive, with the capital wasted in 
this contest." 

It has been charged that France threw herself into this 
war with England to gratify a feeling of revenge, and in 
the hope of regaining her lost possessions in Canada. 

It is more than probable that her sentiment of love 
for America was slightly tinged with that of hate for 
England ; but if hopes were entertained of retrieving 
French losses in the New World by the aid of the American 
Colonists, these hopes were based upon a tottering foun- 



REIGN OF LO VIS XVL &1 

dation. The war news received from America was cer- 
tainly not of the sort to encourage such hopes, and far 
from being in a condition of seconding France in such a 
venture, if reliance can be placed in the statement of an 
eminent American, the condition of the colonists was all 
but hopeless at this very time. 

Marshall's Life of Washington, says : 

" When the destinies of America were tottering on the 
brink of destruction, the representations in France rela- 
tive to the state of American affairs were most deplorable 
and sufficient to repress the most determined zeal. The 
army of Washington was represented 'as a mere rabble, 
flying before thirty thousand British regulars. Nor was 
this far from reality. The rout and carnage of Brook- 
lyn and the subsequent evacuation of Long Island, had 
given a gloomy aspect to the affairs of America. The 
evacuation and capture of New York greatly dispirited 
the American troops, and almost drove them to despair. 
The militia were impatient to return home, and almost 
totally disobedient to orders, deserting by half and even 
by whole regiments. The battle of White Plains ; the 
surrender of Fort Washington ; the evacuation of Fort 
Lee ; the gradual dissolution of the American army ; the 
ineffectual attempts to raise the militia; the indisposition 
of the inhabitants to further resistance ; the retreat of 
General Washington through New Jersey at the head of 
less than three thousand men, badly armed and clad, dis- 
pirited by losses and fatigue, retreating almost barefoot in 
the cold of November and December, before a numerous, 
well-appointed and victorious army through a desponding, 
country ; the immense numbers that daily flocked to the 
British standard for the purpose of making their peace 
and obtaining protection ; the universal idea that the 
contest wad approaching its termination, greatly supported 
by the contrast between the splendid appearance of the 



&3 THE FOES OF TEE FBENGB REVOL TITION. 

pursuing army and that made by the ragged Americans 
who were fleeing before them, destitute of almost every 
necessity — all these causes contributed, in Europe, almost 
to extinguish the hope of a successful issue to the strug- 
gles of America." 

Such was the condition of the American cause, when, 
notwithstanding these discouraging reports, France threw 
her sword and her treasure into the fast-sinking scale. 
The cost of this error to France has been computed at 
one thousand four hundred million francs. 

It was all loss to France ; it all enured to the benefit of 
the United States.- The extraordinary expenditure con- 
sequent upon this war, notwithstanding, Necker had suc- 
ceeded in reducing the annual expenditures ten million 
francs below the receipts in less than five years. In 1781 
he published his Compte Rendu au Roi sur Us Finances 
deVEtat, an exposure which aroused the enmity of the 
courtiers, whose pensions and privileges had been abridged, 
and displeased the prime minister, Maurepas. Necker, 
desiring to vindicate his measures before the King, in- 
sisted upon a seat in the royal cabinet, from which he 
had been excluded on account of his religious persuasion. 
His claim being disregarded, he sent in his resignation. 
Two years were now criminally wasted in fruitless experi- 
ments by inexperienced and obscure ministers, when the 
intellectual but frivolous Cojonne was charged with the 
duty of bringing order out of chaos. He started out with 
the anomalistic theory, that to be able to borroAV liberally 
one must spend munificently. 

This was a man after the heart of the court. His 
policy was carried out with such exactness that in 1787, 
the public debt had increased four hundred million 
francs. The historian, Taine, in speaking of this period, 
says : 

" Colonne^s ministry was the degradation of France. 



BEIGN OF LOUIS XVL S3 

It was the corrupt court daily dragging the monarchy and 
itself to ruin. Fresh debts, fresh anticipations of reve- 
nue, additional taxes, seemed to restore plenty to the 
court, which plunged ever deeper in reckless amusements, 
as if this hollow life would last forever. Early in his 
reign Louis XVI. had given some hours every day to busi- 
ness of State ; now all was swallowed up by court life, 
hunting, dissipation. The Queen could bear no serious 
people ; and the King gradually gave way to her humor, 
becoming as careless and useless as the rest. At Marley, 
amusements from dinner at one, till one the next morning. 
At Versailles, three shows and two balls a week ; two 
great suppers Tuesday and Thursday ; from time to time 
a run into Paris for the opera. At Fontainebleau, three 
plays a week, cards, supper and the rest. In winter the 
Qaeen gave a weekly masked ball." 

It fmally dawned upon Colonne that this sort of finan- 
ciering was not liable to remedy things, and some other 
method than spending munificently must be devised. The 
laying of additional taxes upon the people, already grown 
desperate under governmental exactions, being out of the 
question, he suggested to the King to test the patriotism 
and generosity of the privileged classes. 

Accordingly the convocation of the ^'Assembly of 
Notables" was determined upon. They met in 1787. 
When approached by M. Colonne, however, with the prop- 
osition that they come to the relief of the Government 
and bear their share of its burdens, his suggestions were 
declared impertinent and revolutionary, and rejected with 
scorn. This arrogant and selfish conduct of the nobles 
thoroughly roused the people, whereupon, the court 
charged Colonne with unnecessarily stirring up the fac- 
tious spirits of the country, and finally prevailed upon the 
King to dismiss him. In revenge, Colonne made a savage 
attack upon the notables, whom he charged witli avarice 



34 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 

and cupidity. Now the rogues began to fall out and M. 
ISTecker was recalled. 

One of the most significant events transpiring duriug 
the session of the Assembly of Notables, and which, at 
this date, seems to have been the magnetic chain between 
the American and French revolutions, was the Parlia- 
mentary encounter of General Lafayette with the Count 
d'Artois, brother of the King and afterward Charles 
X. — the foremost representative of the ancient feudal 
regime. Lafayette was a member of this Assem^bly of 
Notables, and with the spirit of American liberty in his 
breast, he at once espoused the cause of the people. He 
denounced the abuses of the Government ; proposed the 
abolition of the Lettres de Cachet; the restoration of equal 
citizenship to the Protestants, and first and foremost of 
all, he demanded the convocation of the States General. 

" What/' exclaimed Count D'Artois, " do you really 
demand the assembling of the States General?" 

" I do," replied the Marquis, significantly, " and some- 
thing still better." 

Hardly had this demand reached the outside world 
when it was taken up by a member of the Parliament of 
Paris, and a formal request made for the convocation of 
the States General. 

^'This demand," says Pontecoulant, ^'resounded like 
a clap of thunder throughout France." It was accepted 
by the whole country as the only solution of their difficul- 
ties. Nevertheless, when the Paris Parliament ventured a 
step farther and declared ^'that the States General alone 
could legally vote taxes," its members were deemed rebel- 
lious by the court, and by order of the King were banished 
to Troyes. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE lEREPKESSIBLE CONELICT. 



In August^ 1788^ M. Necker had been recalled by the 
King, as the only man whom he believed would be able 
to avert the impending crisis. The revolutionary stream, 
however, had risen beyond the control of any one man, and 
an overflowing treasury could not now have stopped its 
course. The financial embarrassment of the government 
had rendered the call of the States General unavoidable; 
the settlement of the finances, however, was a matter in 
which the masses felt little concern. They knew that the 
government had been taking all it could possibly take out 
of them, and settlement or no settlement, it would con- 
tinue to grasp all it could — no more, no less. ''We want a 
change! We want something better." Lafayette had 
expressed it: ^^we want a share in the government of our 
country." This was the general sentiment of the French. 

This state of feeling can well be understood, when the 
fact is taken into consideration, that thousands of the offi- 
cers and soldiers who, having fought with the Americans 
to win liberty, had returned to France imbued with a 
kindred spirit. In America they had seen a new and 
happy nation, in which the pride of birth and the dis- 
tinctions of rank were unnoticed; they saw, for the first 
time, virtue, talent and courage rewarded; they saw with 
surprise a sovereign people fighting, not for a master, but 
for themselves; dispensing justice, and administering the 
laws, by representatives of their own free choice. 

On their return to their relations and friends, a com- 
parison between their condition and the condiLion of 



36 THE FOES OF TEE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

the Americans was but natural. The contrast could be 
no less than odious and intolerable. At home they be- 
held family relations, accidental birth and purchased po- 
sitions, prefered to merit; political and social influence 
to justice, and wealth to intrinsic worth. They began to 
examine and study their own form of government; a form 
in which the king was everything, and the peoj)le, the 
formation of all power, merely ciphers. At home, in the 
language of another, they found the people entirely des- 
titute of redress or protection; the royal authority para- 
mount and unbounded; the laws venal; the peasantry 
oppressed, agriculture in a languishing state; commerce 
considered as degrading; the revenues farmed out to greedy 
financiers; the public money consumed by a court wal- 
lowing in luxury, and every institution at variance with 
justice, policy and reason. 

It is but natural that these returned soldiers should 
wish and pine for a change, and that their ardent long- 
ings should be carried from hamlet to hamlet, and house 
to house, throughout their unhappy country. 

Seemingly, in conjunction with this proselyting of 
American ideas of government, the intellectual field, 
broken and prepared by the philosophers of the century, 
was being actively worked by the so-called '' economists'' 
of the ''Quesnay" school of political economy. In 1758 
Francois Quesnay, better known as the father of the agri- 
cultural system of economy, published his famous work 
entitled: '^ Tableau Economiq'ae et Maximes General du 
Government Economique." Quesnay maintained that the 
earth is |;he sole producer of wealth, and the cultivators 
of the soil the only productive class. He believed that 
perfect freedom of trade with all nations was the greatest 
desideratum for agriculture, which should be encouraged 
by every possible means. The explosion of John Law's 
Mississippi bubble had most effectually cured Frenchmen 



THE 1BBEPBE8SIBLE CONFLICT. 37 

of the speculating disease^ and turned their attention to 
land, as the best and safest investment in the end. In 
consequence, the value of land soon took an upward turn. 
Quesnay^s doctrine, therefore, that a nation's wealth must 
be sought in agriculture, found adherents and disciples in 
all classes of society. His economic views, that the world 
and humanity are controlled by certain permanent phys- 
ical and moral laws, which cannot be violated with impu- 
nity, were taken up by the philosophers, and, in conjunc- 
tion with their own writings, disseminated amidst all 
classes of the population ; in fact, the fundamental idea 
of Quesnay's system was also that of Voltaire and Dide- 
rot — namely, that justice manifests itself in freedom of 
property ; that is, in the right of every man to dispose of 
his earnings as to him seems best ; to do what does not 
injure the whole, and to acquire, possess and use all the 
commodities, so far as this does not conflict with the 
laws of nature and of social organization. These ideas, 
published in books and pamphlets, were thrown broadcast 
over Prance. 

The erroneous impression seems to prevail that the 
French tradesman and peasant were too illiterate to in- 
dulge in this sort of literature. It is true, the system of 
schools was but little developed; there was, however, the 
village school in almost every town of France where the 
children of the peasant learned, at least to read the cate- 
chism, and while illiteracy had not disappeared, there were a 
sufficient number of those who could read to impart useful 
information to those who could not. The best evidence 
that the peasant's mind had become imbued with the 
doctrines of the philosophers and economists of that 
century is the holy horror with which M. Bertin, Finance 
Minister of Louis XV., relates to his master the method 
of their dissemination among the rural population of France 

''I had long since observed," he says, ''the different 



3S THE FOES OF THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 

sects of our philosophers, and although I had much to 
reproach myself with as to the practice, I had at least pre- 
served my principles of religion. I had little doubt of the 
efforts of the philosophers to destroy it. I was sensible 
they wished the direction of the free schools; they desired 
his Majesty to allow them to establish these, and by that 
means seize the education of the people, under the pretext 
that the bishops and ecclesiastics, who had hitherto super- 
intended them and their teachers, could not be competent 
judges in subjects so little suited to clergymen. 

^'I apprehended that their object was not so much to 
give lessons of agriculture to the children of the husband- 
men and trades-people, as to withdraw them from their 
habitual instructions in their catechism or in their religion. 

" I did not hesitate to declare to the King that the in- 
tention of the philosophers was very different from his 
*I know those conspirators,' I said, 'and beware, Sire, of 
giving them your aid. Your kingdom is not deficient in 
free schools, or schools nearly free; they are to be found in 
every little town, and almost in every village; and perhaps 
they are already tut too numerous. It is not books thai form 
meclianics and ploughmen. The books and masters sent by 
the philosophers will rather infuse system than industry 
into the country people. I tremble lest they render them 
idle, vain, and jealous; in a short time, discontented and 
seditious, and at length, rehellious. I fear lest the whole 
expense they seek to put your Majesty to should be grade 
ually to obliterate from the hearts of the people the love 
of their religion and of their Sovereign. 

"'To these arguments I added whatever my mind could 
suggest to dissuade his Majesty. I advised him ' instead 
of paying those masters whom the philosophers had chosen, 
to employ the same sums for multiplying the catechists 
and in searching for good and patient masters whom his 
Majesty, in concert with the bishops, should support, in 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 39 

order to teach, the j)Oor peasantry the principles of religion 
and to teach them by rote (that is by frequent repetition to 
impress words upon the memory without an effort of the 
understanding), as the rectors and curates do those children 
who do not know how to read/ Louis XV. seemed to relish 
my arguments, but the philosophers renewed their attacks; 
they had people about his person who never ceased to urge 
him, and the King could not persuade himself that his 
Thinker (as he called Quesnay) and the other philosophers 
were capable of such detestable views; he was so constantly 
beset by these men that, during the last twenty years of his 
reign, in the daily conversations with which he honored 
me, I was perpetually employed in combatting the false 
ideas he had imbued respecting the economists and their 
associates. 

" At length, determined to give the King positive proofs 
that they imposed upon him, I sought to gain the confi- 
dence of those peddlers who travel through the country 
and expose their goods for sale in the villages and at the 
gates of the country seats. I suspected those in particular 
who dealt in books to be nothing less than the agents of the 
philosophers to the good country folks. In my excur- 
sions into the country, I fixed my attention above all on 
the former; when they offered to me a book to buy, I ques- 
tioned them, ^ What might be the books they had? Prob- 
ably catechisms or prayer books?' Few others are read 
in the villages. At these words I had seen many smile. 
''Ho,' they answered; ^ those are not our works; we 
make much more money from Voltaire, Diderot and other 
philosophic writings.' 'What,' said I, 'the country 
people buy Voltaire and Diderot! Where do they find 
the money for such dear works?' Their constant an- 
swer was, ' we have them at a much cheaper rate than 
prayer books; we can sell them for ten sols (ten cents) a 
volume, and have a pretty profit in the bargain.' Ques- 



J^0 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

tioning them still further, many of them owned, 'that 
those books cost them nothing ; that they received whole 
bales of them, without knowing from whence they came, 
but being simi^ly licensed to sell them in their journeys 
at the lowest price/ '^ 

Not only through the latter part of the reign of Louis 
XV., but all through that of Louis XVI., this silent, but 
effective missionary work Avas in progress, and it is useless 
to say, that when the Kevolution came, the rural popula- 
tion were not prepared for a change. They cherished and 
admired the model of free institutions which the Ameri- 
can Colonists had set before them; they did not under- 
stand its details, but they knew it was a government by 
all the people, .managed by their representatives. They 
did not, however, entertain the idea of so radical a trans- 
formation — a change for the better was all they could 
hope for. 

The news that Louis XVI. had concluded to call 
together the States- General was received with great satis- 
faction; it was considered a step in the right direction, 
as some of their most prominent men, at least, would here 
lift their voices in their behalf. When, at the close of 
the year 1788, it became known that an additional royal 
decree had been issued, allowing to the commons double 
the number of representatives of that of the other two 
orders — the nobility and the clergy — the enthusiasm was 
unbounded. 

The excitement and confusion which prevailed in the 
rural districts during this election is easy of explanation, 
when it is considered, that not less than four million men, 
who had never witnessed such a thing as a popular elec- 
tion, with its appendages of primary meetings, presidents, 
secretaries and ballots, were thus suddenly called to per- 
form the duties of citizenship. 

The government, however, had failed to issue definite 



;) 



r-- 




-T, ' ■» W 



-y*-"!*!^' 



4w># 



BAILLY. 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 4I 

instructions and directions concerning the methods of 
holding tills election. The call of the King had not been 
spontaneous in the first place ; as was well understood, it 
lay not in the plan of the government to initiate the new 
voter into all the details of an election nor raise him to the 
least political power. The court and the ministry rested 
in the innocence and modesty of the peasant, and in his 
traditional attachment and respect for his "Seignior." 
They recalled ''the good old times" when the "Third 
Estate" elected as their representatives only noblemen 
and members of the civil administration, and the latter, 
expecting to become nobles themselves, sided, hat in 
hand, with the nobility, and against the interests of those 
who had elected them. Then they relied in the efficacy 
of wealth in the hands of the privileged classes, which, 
when placed where it would do the most good, was always 
able to travesty universal suffrage into universal farce. 
The result, however, proved the short-sightedness of such 
expectations, and demonstrated the fact that while they 
had endeavored to keep the people in ignorance, the people 
had, in some way, become cognizant of the wrongs and 
injustices to which they had been subjected; that the means 
of redress had now been placed in their hands, and they 
would neither be cajoled, intimidated nor bribed into 
voting for candidates other than of their own choice. 

It is true many could not read or write, but, as is the 
case generally in such deficiency, many could talk. There 
were men among them who could write, had read much, 
and would act for them — the poorly-paid clergymen of. 
the village, who had suffered and sympathized with them, 
and who could be relied upon to formulate their demands; 
these same clergymen themselves, in many places being 
selected as electors. The cahiers, or platforms of the 
electors, still extant, show the modest demands of these 
newly-enfranchised voters. In the main, they were requests 



J^2 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

for relief from abuses 3 from onerous and unequal taxa- 
tion ; from tyrannical and often barborous treatment of 
the landed aristocracy and royal tax-gatherer ; and for a 
more equal and equitable dispensation of justice, and fo7' 
a liouse of the people's Representatives. 

It does not appear, however, that among all these 
requests, a single one was made for a republican form of 
government. As for the methods of obtaining, or mak- 
ing these changes, few suggestions were made, nor had 
the leaders a clear idea of what they proposed to do. 
Both people and their leaders, however, distinctly per- 
ceived the break-of-day for France. 

Let us consider for an instant what were the most 
crying evils from which the French people asked to be 
relieved. 

The great infamy which had attended the Lettre de 
Cachet system, and that of the Bastiles during the whole 
reigns of both Louis XV. and Louis XVL, was one of the 
most prominent features of royal despotism in France. 
They not only were arbitrarily used by courtiers and the 
mistresses of the king, and v/ith the abuse of which 
Mme. de Maintenon made herself so unspeakably infam- 
ous, but they Avere sold in blanks, to be filled up at the 
pleasure of the purchaser, who was thus enabled, for the 
gratification of private revenge, to tear a man from the 
bosom of his family and to place him where he would be 
forgotten and die unknown. They were sold to parents 
to imprison their sons (as Mirabeau had been). They 
were frequently presented to handsome women, tired of 
their husbands. They had become so common, that the 
clerks of departments, their mistresses and friends of 
mistresses, obtained them as favors. And once in the 
Bastile, the poor wretch was forgotten in this tomb of 
the living. In 1775, there Avere about twenty such dun- 
geons in the country, containing 3,000 prisoners. Voltaire, 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 43 

himself, was imprisoned througli a Lettre de Cachet signed 
by Louis XV. at the age of five. 

This Lettre de Cachet system and these arbitrary 
imprisonments were not, however, the principal causes of 
discontent, as by these merely, the higher classes were 
affected. 

The real evils were those which oppressed the inhabi- 
tants of the country, among which were the corvee or 
compulsory labor on the highway, which yearly ruined 
hundreds of agriculturists; the recruiting system, which 
oppressed the poor exclusively; the capitainerie, or the 
exclusive privilege of the Princes of Blood to the 
game of certain districts; the odious disproportion and 
severity of the penal code of revenue collections; the 
dime, or the tenth of all the products, which was often 
computed so as to amount to one-third, and often to one- 
half of the total crop; the taxes " in kind,''' which had 
been retained as a seigniorial right since the middle age, 
by which the poor tenant had to contribute yearly a 
certain quantity of wood, of wheat, poultry, eggs, beeswax 
and flowers, and, in addition to the usual service of the 
corvee, gratuituous labor at the seigniorial mansion, also 
the taille, or real- estate tax, from which the clergy and 
the nobility were almost wholly exempt, was estimated 
at 110 million francs yearly. According to official 
statistics the various taxes paid by the peasants of one of 
these districts, amounted to fifty-three francs per hundred 
of his income to the State, fourteen francs to their seig- 
niors, fourteen to the clergy, and from the remaining 
nineteen francs the salt and consumptive taxes were 
taken. 

These taxes were extorted from this class by the tax- 
fermiers, with the most flagrant injustice and brutality. 
In addition to the privileged orders, who were exempt 
from taxation, the rich and influential succeeded through 



U THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

bribery and other dishonorable means in evading pay- 
ment of their just proportion, and in transfering the 
burden upon the shoulders of those least able to bear it. 

This unfortunate state of affairs was made more intol- 
erable through the vexatious and burdensome duties col- 
lected between the provinces, as well as the prohibition of 
the export of wheat. 

With the exception of a few magnificent highways, 
built for military purposes, the roads of communication 
were in a wretched condition. Trade and commerce were 
at a stand-still. The higher nobility, who v/asted the 
greater part of the wsalth they had wrung from the 
peasant and artizan in extravagance and dissipation at 
Paris and Versailles, left the management of their domains 
to their superintendents, while the comparatively insig- 
nificant number of small independent agriculturists, har- 
assed by the tax-gatherer, compulsory service to royal, 
tourists, etc., never succeeded in making the earnings 
necessary for humane existence. Under these conditions, 
the larger estates, as well as the small ones, gradually 
degenerated, for who was found willing to exert his ener- 
gies merely to gratify the rapacity of the intendants, or 
the extravagancies of the courtiers. Not more land was 
cultivated than was absolutely necessary, if for no other 
reason than to avoid such appearances as would suggest 
that an additional exaction might be made by the govern- 
ment. 

The seigniorial justice courts were purely arbitrary, and 
merely established for the protection of the innumerable 
feudal prerogatives of the nobility and clergy. 

These were some of the evils of which the people in 
the rural districts asked to be relieved at their first election. 

What' was the attitude of the privileged orders, in the 
face of the impending conflict? Were there any signs of a 
returning sentiment of justice? Or any disposition to make 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 46 

concessions, as a matter of prudence? Neither the one 
nor the other. 

By examining the platforms of the clergy and the 
nobility, we find that the question with them was, not what 
may reasonably be conceded but how can we best main- 
tain what we have? In these documents we see that the 
nobility demanded the confirmation of its feudal privi- 
leges; the continuation of the recruiting clauses; the 
exclusive privileges of the nobility to advancement to posi- 
tions of honor and trust in the army and church; the 
abolition of free commerce on grain (recently decreed by 
Turgot's advice) ; the maintainance of the penal press laws, 
and, last but not least, the perpetuation of the infamous 
system of the Lettre de Cachet. 

Thus was the irrepressible confiict, between the 
oppressors and the oppressed, inaugurated in France in 
1789. 



CHAPTEE yi. 



THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. 



The meeting of the States General had been fixed for 
May 5th. The formal opening, however, did not take 
place until the 6th. 

Thousands liad come from Paris to Versailles to wit- 
ness the ceremonies of this unusual occasion — the begin- 
ning of the reign of law. The common people were full 
of hope. What would be the outcome? It could not be a 
change for the worse. The 578 members of the Third 
Estate, or Commons, were placed in front of the magnifi- 
cent procession as it moved from the church to the Hall 
of the Assembly. Dressed in plain black clothes — an 
unusual costume for officials in those days— they were 
received by the enthusiastic people lining the streets with 
loud cheers. Then came the 291 niembers of the nobility, 
and 270 of the higher clergy, all arrayed in gorgeous 
apparel. They were received in ominous silence. "Of this 
procession," says Michelet, " the nobility were illustrious 
nobodies with one exception, the young Marquis De La- 
fayette, v/ho, in spite of the court, had gone out to Amer- 
ica to take part in their war. The King was cheered for 
having called the States General; the Queen, however, was 
received coldly, as she continued to remain ''the proud 
Austrian'^ to the common people. She had never consid- 
ered it worth her while to cultivate their impressable 
natures, and her reserve and seeming indifference to their 
affection was, on this occasion, answered in like manner. 
She exerted herself to the utmost to appear unmoved; but 
the effort v/as too great, and she fainted." 

46 




MIRABEAU. 



i 



TEE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. 47 

The one man, upon the assembling of the members^ who 
appeared to attract particular attention, was Mirabeau; the 
Count Mirabeau, who having been expelled from the 
''Order of Nobility/' had been elected to the Third 
Estate from Aix. It could be seen upon his face that he 
had come to plague his tormentors. When this man of 
easy virtue took his seat, murmurs of dissatisfaction came 
from the benches of the nobility; the inmates of glass 
houses thus early began to throw stones. It has been 
charged, that at the beginning of their proceedings, the 
court and privileged orders had secretly agreed to stand 
by the old way of voting, to wit, the two to one system; 
in order that any measure proposed by the commons could 
be defeated by the other two. 

At all events the government had failed to make defi- 
nite arrangements regarding the mode of assembling, and 
this indecision and uncertainty constituted the first 
serious obstacle to harmonious action. 

It is true, the old constitution of the States General 
provided, that each of their orders should meet and delib- 
erate separately. Since the last sitting — one hundred and 
fifty-eight years — times had changed, however. Then, 
the Third Estate was considered merely as a subordinate 
appendage to pacify the burghers. But the King, in his 
new departure, by allotting them double representation, 
thereby tacitly admitted their importance in the State. 
Besides, the government had been informed that in 
almost every election district the demand for a Joint 
assembly had been made. Instead of meeting these in a 
spirit of conciliation, however, the court and privileged 
orders insisted upon the old customs; tjius exposing them- 
selves at the outset to the suspicion that treachery and 
deceit were contemplated. When the deputies had all 
assembled in the handsomely decorated hall, the King 
appeared and opened the proceedings with an address 



Jt8 TEE FOES OE THE FRENGS REVOLUTION, 

brimful of good wishes and promises of reform, leaving 
unsettled, however, the principal question, the manner 
of meeting. 

M. Necker, who followed him, with his financial re- 
port was not more fortunate. His long array of figures 
wearied the assemblage. The King, followed by the clergy 
and nobility, retired, and the Third Estate dispersed to 
talk matters over. Some were disgusted, some incensed, 
and .some determined, but all less hopeful than before the 
meeting. Over a month of the precious time of the mem- 
bers was now wasted in a contest between the Third Estate 
on one side and the privileged classes on the other as to 
the method of meeting. 

The uncompromising attitude of the nobility and the 
clergy against a joint assemblage, had the effect of confirm- 
ing the suspicion of the Third Estate, that it was not 
intended to allow the people the full enjoyment of the 
advantage they had appeared to gain. Conscious of the 
justice of their cause, and of their numerical strength, 
they stoutly persisted in the demand that the two orders 
join them and form one assemblage. 

Eepeated conferences were held, but without result. 
Messages from the Third Estate urging action were 
unheeded, or returned with evasive replies or insulting 
haughtiness. During this long inactivity of the Assem- 
bly, business became stagnant ; the monied class, always 
timid, at this delay closed the doors of their factories, and 
a large class of the population found themselves out of 
employment. The distress in all large towns increased 
from day to day. Provisions grew scarce, and large 
bands of beggars — the tramps of those tdays — began 
roaming through the country demanding bread. 

In Paris disturbances were of frequent occurrence. 
The thousands of idle workmen were daily reinforced by 
idle men from the country. Blood had been shed in the 



THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. 49 

Faubourg St. Antoine, through some heartless remarks 
made by a wall-paper manufacturer, Revilliori;, and his 
factory sacked and destroyed. The idea of political clubs 
was gaining great strength among the people of France. 
The Cluh des Bretons, at Versailles (afterwards the 
Jacobin), composed mainly of members of the Assembly 
from the Province of Bretagne, was the first to gain 
notoriety. Others were formed, and through them and 
in connection with the press, the people were kept thor- 
oughly informed of the obstinate struggle in progress 
between the nobility and the commons. 

In view of this threatening state of affairs, what were 
the representatives of the people to do? It was their clear 
and imperative duty to promptly cut the gordian-knot, or 
as Abbay Sieyes, deputy from Paris, on June 10th, 
expressed it : 

" Coiqjons le cable, il est temps ! " And they did cut 
the cable, which held the ship Revolution to its mooring. 
The last notice was sent to the nobility the same day, to 
wit: '' In one hour the call of the whole House will be 
made.^' The demand was rejected, and the Third Estate 
proceeded to constitute itself an acting body under the 
title of the Commons. Five days later, on June 15th, 
having been joined by ten members of the privileged 
orders. Deputy Sieyes proposed to adopt the name of 
'' Assembly of the Representatives, known and verified 
by the French ISTation/' This was a preamble and not a 
name. Numerous other propositions were made. For 
two days the struggle continued ; Sieyes had modified or 
rather simplified his proposition to " National Assembly," 
and this name was finally adopted on the 17th. The formula 
was solemnly sworn to, and the Assembly thus constituted 
went before the world with the declaration: that hence- 
forth ''the sovereignty of France was with the Nation. ■" 
In order to substantiate this declaration, the Assembly 



Jf/ TIIS FOES OF THE FRENCH BEVOLLfTION. 

further decreed, " that henceforth the right and power of 
taxation rested in the National Assembly." 

This bold step of the Assembly caused the most tre- 
mendous excitement throughout the country, but was 
heard Avith consternation and dismay by the court. The 
nobility became exasperated to madness. It insisted 
that the King annul the revolutionary decree of the Assem- 
bly without delay ; or, if necessary, disperse this body hy 
force 0/ arms; seemingly unaware of the fact, that with 
the exception of the regiments composed of foreign mer- 
cenaries, the army was French in all that the term 
implies, and could not be used against the Eepresentatives 
of its people. 

After a lengthy discussion by the Council of Ministers, 
during which the danger and uselessness of forcible meas- 
ures was fully demonstrated, it was resolved to push the 
King into the breach by holding a Royal Session of the 
Estates. A plan was devised by which the King might, 
without a collision, undo what had been done by the 
Assembly ; where he could make promises of all possible 
concessions and still insist upon separate organization. 
In pursuance of this programme the hall in which the 
Assembly had met was closed to the Representatives with- 
out previous notice ; ostensibly to prepare it for the Royal 
Session. The doors were guarded by a military detach- 
ment. These circumstances and the ill-chosen time 
raised the suspicion in the minds of the Deputies and of 
the people who had assembled in large numbers in front 
of the hall, that the dissolution of the Assembly was 
intended. In order to thwart such a plan, the members 
betook themselves to the now celebrated Tennis Court 
(ball ground) near by, where that memorable oath was 
taken: " Never to separate until a constitution was formed 
and public order secured." This second step in the 
revolutionary course formed again the occasion for wild 



THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. SI 

demonstrations of Joy in Paris^ and throughout the 
country. 

The Eoyal Session was held on the 23d of June. The 
King's address, which contained promises of reforms, and 
the assurance that everything would be left to the States 
General to regulate, was received with chilly silence on the 
part of the members of the Third Estate. When^ how- 
ever, poor Louis XVI. essayed to assume the tone of his 
great grandsire Louis XIV., by declaring, "^If you 
abandon me in this grand undertaking, I alone shall take 
the good of my people in hand ; / alone shall consider 
myself their true representative,'^ and closed with the 
peremptory command, " I order you, gentlemen, to sepa- 
rate at once, and to meet to-morrow morning in the 
chambers set apart for your order, to re-open your sit- 
tings/' the expression of surprise and indignation was 
plainly visible upon the upturned faces of the represent- 
atives. 

The King now withdrew, followed by a majority of the 
nobility and clergy, the Commons remaining in their seats. 
The Royal Master of Ceremony soon after entered the 
hall, and approaching the President, said: '^ You have 
heard the order of the King?" 

^'I can not adjourn tlie Assembly without their con- 
sent," the President replied; and, turning to a member 
at his side, said, by way of suggestion, '^'^It occurs to me 
that the National Assembly can receive no orders." 

Mirabeau, who was then speaking to the Assembly, 
reminding the members of their sacred obligation taken at 
the Tennis Court, and appealing to their honor and their 
sense of duty not to basely surrender their sacred trust, had 
overheard the remark of the President, and, turning 
towards the royal messenger, said: *'We have heard the 
recommendation of the King; but you, sir, who have no 
place, no voice, nor the right to speak in this Assembly — 



5S THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

3i)u are not the person to remind us of liis commands. Go! 
tell those who liave sent you here that we are here by the 
will of the people; that we shall be driven hence only by 
the force of the bayonet ! " 

This courageous assertion of national sovereignty and 
open defiance of royal authority had an electrifying effect 
upon the members of the Assembly, which effect was 
evidenced by the general remarks which followed. 
Through Mirabeau's utterance the spirit of resistance now 
manifested itself, and became conclusive by the subsequent 
adoption of Mirabeau's resolution, '^ declaring, under pen- 
alty of death, the inviolability of members of the National 
Assembly." 

The King, on being informed of the Assembly's refusal 
to adjourn, simjjly replied : ^'Well, let them stay," the 
only course open under the circumstances; any other might 
not only have precipitated a terrible conflict, for which the 
court was not yet prepared, but have endangered the very 
lives of the royal family. Paris, not the turbulent ele- 
ments of the faubourgs, but its business and professional 
men, the bourgeoisie of the great city, the principal actors 
in the revolutionary movement, would, at that time, have 
resisted any measure of a counter-revolutionary character 
to the bitter end. The scope of public sentiment was 
well understood at court. This intelligent class of the Paris 
population had been watching the endangered position of 
the Assembly, besieged by mercenary troops, with the most 
intense feeling of apprehension. Well authenticated 
rumors of threats on the part of the royal family and others 
against some of the members of the Assembly had reached 
Paris, and the best citizens v/ould undoubtedly have 
marched in a body upon Versailles at the first overt act. 
The Queen herself became alarmed, and advised tlie 
King, as a measure of prudence, to appear friendly to ]vT. 
Necker, whose absence from the Assembly on the 23(1 oi 




CO 

< 
CQ 

< 

O 

P5 
<! 

O 
O 

w 

O 
H 



THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. - 53 

June had been construed by the j)eoi3lo as a silent protest 
against the reactionary programme of that day. His 
seeming "entente cordiaU" with the court gave general 
satisfaction. 

The people went in masses to the palace and cheered 
the Queen and the Dauphin. Still, if the court had agreed 
with Necker and had accepted the situation in good faith, 
why did the King not revoke his reactionary orders of the 
23d? By these the Assembly was an illegal body, sitting 
in open violation of royal authority and acting outside of 
law; reliable troops, with pointed cannon, had been placed 
inline, fronting the Assembly, ready to carry his orders 
into execution. This irritating suspense, with its rumors 
of intrigues and conspiracies, naturally served to increase 
the anxiety at the capital and to exasj)erate its populace to 
frenzy. Tlie massing of troops in the vicinity of Paris was 
an additional cause of disquietude and terror. Thirty-five 
thousand men stood at its gates and twenty thousand 
more were expected. Under these alarming conditions, 
intensified by scarcity of food, the one hundred and twenty 
Paris electors, but recently chosen to perform the high- 
est act of popular sovereignty, namely, that of appoint- 
ing Deputies to the National Assembly, as a matter of pub- 
lic policy, concluded on the 25th of June to meet again, 
for the purpose of considering the situation. They were 
mostly members of the wealthy class of manufacturers, 
bankers, etc., with a sprinkling of nobles. They re- 
solved themselves into a Provisional Municipal Council, 
and voted an address to the King, asking for the estab- 
lishment of a National guard> the organization of a com- 
munal government with annual elections, and the revo- 
cation of the King's orders of the 23d. On the same 
day a movement of great significance took place. The 
French guards, a corps d'elite, composed almost exclu- 
sively of Parisians, heretofore considered loyal to the 



5Jf THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

court, left their barracks and fraternized with the people. 
The revolutionary tide was visibly rising when the court, 
anxious to postpone the crisis, advised the King to order 
the nobility and the clergy to join the Third Estate; they 
did so without taking part in the deliberations, however. 
The victory of the commons seemed now to be complete, 
since by this step the King had tacitly acknowledged the 
legal status of the Assembly, A month ag"©, the members 
of the Third Estate were the despised underlings, whose 
company must be temporarily endured — ''Nothing 
once," as Mr. Sieyes aptly expressed it; "To-day, to all 
appearances, the Representatives of the sovereign people 
of France — everything." But were they so in fact? 
Paris Avas mistrustful. What, was asked, does this disin- 
clination on the part of the privileged orders to take 
part in the deliberations signify? Are they waiting for 
new developments? Why, if everything is satisfactory, 
does not the King formally revoke his offensive orders of 
the 23d; what are the reasons for massing so many troops at 
Paris ? On the 30th another event, apparently insignifi- 
cant but important in its effect, added fuel to the flame. 
Eleven privates of the French guards had been thrown 
into a dungeon, for the crime of having secretly sworn only 
to obey the orders of the Assembly. The indignant 
people battered down the doors of the prison, released the 
soldiers and marched them to the Palais Eoyal, where 
they received a popular ovation. Thus, from day to day, 
the revolutionary movement received fresh impetus. The 
court kept reticent ; the royal orders of the 23d remained 
unrepealed; — the very air smelt sulphurous. There was 
every appearance of peace and conciliation at the palace 
in Versailles, and yet the court was making preparations 
for war! Every member felt that a crisis was near at hand. 
On the 10th of July it was rumored that on the day fol- 
lowing sixty members of the Assembly were to be arrested. 



THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. 55 

Upon the strength of this rumor, the Assembly, upon 
Mirabeau^s motion, voted an address to the King, asking 
for the withdrawal of the troops. This request, clothed 
in humble and respectful language, was thus haughtily 
answered by the King: "I am the sole judge of the 
necessity/' Whence this sudden stiffening of the King's 
back-bone? Was the mine ready to be sprung? But why 
this suspense? Let us see! 

Note well and judge whether all signs did not point 
toward a violent counter — Eevolution. From the 23d of 
June, reinforcement of the garrison at Versailles con- 
tinued, several regiments of foreign mercenaries, who 
could be relied upon to shoot, having arrived; — almost 
three weeks of military preparations! What for? But 
one obstacle to a successful attack upon the Assembly 
remained to be removed. M. ISTecker's ministry would 
not lend a helping hand to such a desperate step. To 
carry out the conspiracy, men of unquestionable attach- 
ment to the old regime must be placed at the helm. Con- 
sequently, on the following day, the 11th, M. Necker was 
privately notified of his dismissal, and ordered forthwith to 
leave the kingdom. Three other members of the ministry, 
who had loyally accepted the situation, were, also, dis- 
missed. M. Breteuil, a favorite of the Queen, who had 
expressed himself ready to lay Paris in ashes and deci- 
mate her inhabitants,' if necessary, was chosen as prime 
minister. Marshal Broglie, the commander-in-chief of 
the troops, an old martinet of the seven-years' war, and a 
violent reactionist, was charged with the war portfolio. 
The court was now ready for the stroke, but the King still 
hesitated. That day of inaction was fatal to the conspira- 
tors. When the news of Necker's dismissal and exile 
reached Paris, it created the most intense feeling, the 
furor of the exasperated populace finding vent in violent 
imprecations against the Queen and the new ministry. 



66 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

The streets were soon filled with a tumultuous multitude. 
The tocsin sounded from every church tower, and, at noon, 
the cannon at the Palais Ko3'al thundered the alarm. With 
the cry Vive la Nation! — A has this or that minister, the 
living mass, armed with old muskets, pistols, sahers and 
pikes rushed hither and thither, the main stream finally 
hurrying toward the common meeting place, the garden 
of the Palais Royal. Here a young man, Camille D<5s- 
moulins, stood upon a table, his sword in one hand and a 
pistol in the other, haranguing the multitude and calling 
the people to arms to meet the threatened attack of the 
military. The cry ^ ' to arms, " thus raised, was taken up by 
two hundred thousand men. Theexcitementwasincreased 
by the reported charge of cavalry at the Place Louis XV. 
upon the unarmed people. The streets were barricaded 
and kept guarded by citizens during the night. On the 
13th the demand of the people for arms became more 
urgent. Search was made in all directions, but with the 
exception of a few muskets at the city hall, none were to 
be found. The electors, alarmed in turn, at the responsi- 
bility they had assumed, hesitated and temporized, but 
finally, hard pressed, they ordered the enrollment of 
48;, 000 men as a National guard. 

This took place the evening preceding the most mem- 
orable event of the Eevolution, the taking of the Bastile. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE BASTILE. 



The formidable fortress known in history as '^'The Bas- 
tile" was situated upon tlio spacious square in Paris wliicli 
to-day bears its name, and upon which now stands the 
magnificent memorial column of July, or Colonnc de 
Juillet. 

The square forms the terminal point of seven or eight 
of the most important and densely populated streets, and, 
with the exception of the Grand Boulevard, are almost 
exclusively inhabited by the working people and small 
tradesmen, who draw their subsistence from the innumer- 
able large and small factories of the Faubourg St. An- 
toine. Faubourgs St. Marceau and the Marais. 

In ancient times the Grand Boulevard was the fortified 
limits of Paris ; all the territory beyond was called the 
Faubourgs, or Suburbs. Thus came the names of the 
streets — Faubourg St. Antoine, Faubourg du Temple, 
Faubourg St. Martin, St. Dennis, etc. — all suburbs, but 
long ago becoming an integral part of the city of Paris. 
The population of Paris at the time of the Eevolution 
has been estimated at about 800,000. Fully one-fourth 
of this number inhabited this section of the city, over 
whose heads the threatening guns of the Bastile ever hov- 
ered. The eight huge round towers of the fortress were 
more than thirty feet thick at the base, twelve at their 
summits, and were connected by curtains of solid ma- 
sonry. This massive pile of stone was surrounded by a 
moat forty feet wide, which in early times was filled with 
water, rendering access to the interior only possible 

67 



58 THE FOES OF TEE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

through draw-bridges. Its heavy armament, which was 
able to sweep the abutting streets almost their entire 
length, rendered the fort absolutely impregnable, except 
by the slow process of a regular siege ; and the hope of 
taking it by force, as was attempted by the people of 
Paris, Avas a sublime inspiration, or an act of desperation, 
incited by the knowledge that Paris was to be attacked by 
the King's forces, at seven different points, the following 
night. 

The history of the Bastile may be made clear by a sin- 
gle sentence. It was of sinister origin, and was a standing 
menace to justice. During the reign of Charles the Fifth, 
under the pretext of defending the city against foreign 
invasion, but .in fact to over-awe the inhabitants of the 
faubourgs, the Bastile was begun by Plugh Aubriot, in 
1369. The period of its military history was of short 
duration. The English, driven from the streets of Paris 
by the Constable of Richmond, five years after the burn- 
ing of Joan of Arc, took refuge within its protecting 
walls, but, after a siege, were compelled to surrender. 
Later, Turenne, at the head of Louis XIII.'s troops, v/as 
upon the point of beating Condi, when Madamoiselle de 
Montpensier rushed to the Bastile and turned its guns 
upon the Royalists. In this instance the fortress served 
her to good purpose, but, when some years after, her 
lover was thrown into this same prison by Louis XIV., 
because he wanted to marry the princess, she was com- 
pelled, after ten long years of pleading, to sacrifice half her 
immense fortune to secure his release. Richelieu was the 
first to use the fortress for prisoners of State, the same 
prince who introduced the infamous system of '^Lettre de 
Qadiet:' 

During the reign of the three Louis', the Bastile was 
simply the " King's Private Prison." In its reeking dun- 
geon cells, all opposition to arbitrary decrees, protests 




I— I 

P^ 
W 
H 

M 
o 
<J 

I— ( 

PQ 
O 

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t-H 

o 

H 

M 

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Oh 

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O 

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TEE B A STILE. 59 

against niiuisterial abuses of power, critical and disre- 
spectful comments upon the scandalous conduct of royal 
mistresses, and philosophic digressions upon human 
rights, justice and honesty were silenced. The secret his- 
tory of the Bastile — the horrors of its dungeons and 
"ouhliettes," its instruments of torture, the endless suffer- 
ings of thousands of its victims — has long since been given 
to the world, both from the official records of the jailers 
and in personal memoirs of its prisoners. 

But, when men and women are heard to express only 
sentiments of horror at the cruelties visited upon royalty 
during the French Eevolution, a repetition of the least 
revolting instances of kingly injustice in the Bastile will 
serve to keep alive the spirit of honest judgment in the 
most obdurate heart. The register of names found at the 
destruction of the Bastile was incomplete, as it was in- 
tended to be; but hundreds of names of men, who had 
either died or for years languished in its living catacombs, 
were traced upon its walls. 

When, however, it was desired that the name of a prom- 
inent person, who had suddenly disappeared, should be 
forgotton also, he was buried under a fictitious name, and 
only through the indiscretion of some official, or more 
humane Beadle, was the secret of his fate made known to 
family or friends. 

The register was supposed to contain, not only the 
name, but the charge for the ^jrisoner^s commitment. Upon 
examination it was found that the charge was generally of 
a trifling nature, or very indefinite. For instance: Jean 
Blondeau. — ^'Suspect." 

Of what crime he was suspected seems not worth men- 
tioning in this case. 

Francois L6compte. — Writing silly letters to Madam 
de Pompadour. 

The Marquis D'O. — For being a turbulent spirit, 



60 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

The Abbot do Sardun. — Suspected of Jansenism. (Old 
Catholic.) 

In one case, a family having been, or in fear of being 
scandalized, secured a Lettre de Cachet for the offending 
member, and thus were saved from further humiliation. 

The Count do Donzy, suspected of intending to marry 
an actress, was imprisoned in the Bastile. 

Paupaillard, for being an indifferent Catholic. 

John Hastings, an Englishman — ''Suspect." 

L'Aourent d'Harvey for failing to give King George 
his fall title of ''King of England," in his Almanacs. 

The Demoiselle Dupont, "suspected of knowing the 
author of an annonymous poem upon the King." 

The following correspondence, which passed between 
the Lieutenant of Police of Paris and M. De Launay, the 
last Governor of the Bastile, fully illustrates the methods 
employed by this city oflicial to rid himself of obnoxious 
people: 

"I send you, my dear Do Launay, the man F : a 

very bad fellow. You may keep him eight days, when 
you may //(?/ rid of him [debarrasser de lid). 

De Saetines." 
Upon the back of this note appeared the following 
endorsement: 

"On — June the man F was entered. The pre- 
scribed time having elapsed, this is returned to M. Sar- 
tines for instructions, to wit: imder what name he desires 
him to be buried. 

De Launay." 

This expeditious manner of disposing of unpleasant 
cases seems to have been the one adopted at the Bastile, 
whenever outright murder could safely take the place of 
incarceration. 

Among the many memoirs written by people who, for 
a longer or shorter time, were immured in this dungeon, 



THE BA8TILE. 61 

those of M. Liiiguet, published in London in 1783, six 
years before the revolutionary spirit of France took shape, 
are considered the most authentic. 

M. Linguet was an author and editor of " The 
Annals,"^ published in Brussells. Although a devoted 
royalist he sought to shield the King, while exposing at 
the same time the inhumanity and mendacity of his 
ministers. 

In March, 1780, the issue of ''The Annals" was seized 
by the police upon some frivolous pretext, and in Septem- 
ber, having been induced by treacherous methods to visit 
Paris, he was arrested upon a Lettre cle Cachet, and 
thrown into tlie Bastile, where he remained two years 
lac'king four months. Not a question was asked him, nor 
a verbal or written charge preferred against him. The 
immediate cause of his detention was supposed to be an 
expose published in his journal of some suspicious finan- 
cial transaction affecting the honesty of Marshal de Duras, 
and of other high official and military dignitaries. After 
the first two weeks of his confinement he was frankly told 
that, having been within the walls of the Bastile, the 
ministers had become alarmed, lest, upon his liberation 
he would revenge himself by making public the informa- 
tion he had obtained during his own imprisonment, and of 
the treatment inflicted upon others less prominent than 
himself. 

At the end of twenty months, unable to furnish the 
shadow of an excuse for his further detention, he was 
conditionally released. The terms were, namely, that 
henceforth he reside at a small village forty miles from 
Paris, and endeavor to he forgotten as soon as possible, A 
refusal would return him to his old cell in the prison. 
During the few years in which he "^^ tried to be forgotten/' 
he wrote his celebrated "Memoirs of the Bastile." In 
his preface he says: "1 shall not only show in this book 



6S THE FOES OF THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 

that I was absolutely innocent of any offense, and that 
no one else was ever justly imprisoned in the Bastile; the 
innocent because they were innocent; the guilty, but not 
convicted, judged or punished according to law; all law 
is violated here. There is no torture approaching the 
torture endured within, except in hell. It is devouring 
men of all ranks and all nations, and these memoirs give 
but a faint picture of the condition of things in this fear- 
ful prison. For example: 'The Suspect ^is brought in, 
and at once subjected to the indignities of a common 
criminal. He is stripped, his garments searched, his 
papers, nioney, jewelry — everything taken from him. He 
is then hurried to a cell in some one of the towers. These 
Cacliots are lighted by a small aperture, across which are 
three flat iron bars, so placed that the prisoner cannot see 
the street. The ditches filled with the sewerage from the 
Kue St. Antoine penetrates and poisons the air with its 
pestilential stench. These cells are cold and damp, as the 
great thickness of the walls excludes eyery ray of the sun^s 
heat. 

'■^The system of seclusion is complete. Once in the 
Bastile the prisoner is as ignorant of what transpires 
around him, or outside of its impenetrable walls, as if 
buried as many feet in his grave ; a father, brother, sister 
or friend may be but a few yards away, but not a glance, 
not a word can be exchanged with each other, even were 
they cognizant of the other's presence. But, while great 
precautions are taken to prevent any communication 
between prisoners, no effort is made to conceal the suffer- 
ings endured by his next neighbor. The double floors and 
interior walls do not destroy the sounds of clanking 
chains, or the regular click of the heavy keys on the jailer's 
rounds. It is in this absolute seclusion that the refine- 
ment of barbarism consists. The imagination, ever active, 
brings into existence every conceivable cause for imprison- 



THE BA8TILE. 63 

ment, the least criminal of which might have been the 
performance of some patriotic deed or humane service for 
the benefit of mankind." 

The salary of the Governor o:^ the Bastile was 60^000 
franks ($12,000) per year ; but by methods of extortion, 
unblushingly practiced, this sum was doubled. The king 
supplied the prisoner with an unfurnished cell. A man 
of rank could not remain in so small an apartment ; for a 
larger one, there was so much to pay ; so much for the use 
of a chest of drawers ; so much for a table, for a chair, 
etc., etc. For the prisoner's support the King paid so 
much ; according to rank or influence. The rate was as 
follows: 

A simple burgher — five franks per day ($1.00). A 
preacher or priest, banker, or judge of a lower court — ten 
franks. Lieutenant-General — twenty-four franks. A 
Marshal — forty franks. 

And yet it is affirmed, that prisoners in the dungeons 
have lived upon four ounces of meat i^er day ; some were 
given milk alone. 

The Governor was allowed to introduce, free of duty, a 
hundred casks of wine for the prisoners' use. This priv- 
ilege he generally sold to a retail wine seller for two thou- 
sand franks, the merchant furnishing the lowest priced 
wine ; " in fact," says Linguet, " simple vinegar." 

Besides these profits on the food rates and room 
accommodations, the high officials paid for a number of 
cells, whether occupied or not, it is presumed in order to 
have a jDlace always ready. From this source alone it has 
been estimated the Governor received 10,000 francs 
per year. From the sale of Lettres de Cachets an amount 
proportioned to the rank of the prisoner was daily set 
aside for the Governor. Taken all in all, the salary and 
perquisites of the office of Governor of the Bastile in time 
came to be a very lucrative post — outrivalling the best of 



64 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

the kind to be found now in the United Stated. Origi- 
nally a garden had been cultivated within the walls, but 
its last Governor, De Launay, being of a utilitarian turn 
of mind, rented out this only green spot to a gardener, 
who sold his vegetables and fruits to whomsoever could 
buy. During De Launay's rule, also, the prisoners were 
forbidden to walk on the gallery inside the towers. 

Said Linguet, " All the superior officers of the Bastile 
wore the cross of St. Louis, though De Launay and others 
had never served in the army, but were given their titles 
in order to insure among the prisoners respect for their 
authority. The army does not furni&li the nation with 
jailers and executioners. Army officers are sometimes 
compelled to execute unjust orders, but they never dis- 
obey the law in their executions. They are certain that 
the unfortunates turned over to them have had some 
means of defense ; they are certain a just and impartial 
trial has preceded a rigorous decision. They are author- 
ized to suppose that they are dealing with a guilty person. 

The officers of the Bastile, however, are certain of the 
contrary. They know they are daily violating the laws, 
and that it is their special duty to violate them;. that 
they are the passive and criminal instruments of arbi- 
trary violence ; that three-fourths of those delivered into 
their hands are absolutely innocent of any offense ; that 
if there had been a pretext for judicially putting them 
in irons, the short process of .the Lettre de Cachet would 
not have been resorted to." 

When, five years after, this head officer, DeLaunay, 
was sent to his long home without the delays of a trial, 
the ^jleadings of a counsel, or the judgment of the court, 
Mr. Burke, of the British Parliament, burned with right- 
eous indignation over the acts of the bloodthirsty French 
rabble, which had merely meted out to the jailer measure 
for measure. Among the world-renowned persons who 




THEROIGHE 



THE BA8TILE. 65 

liad spent longer or shorter terms of imprisonment in the 
Bastile, and would have been able to verify the statements 
of M. Linguet, had they been living, were General Rich- 
elieu, Voltaire, Blaizot, the King's librarian, and the 
"^Man in the Iron Mask," of whose identity nothing pos- 
itively is known. 

A re-perusal of the lines of blood and tear-stained 
pages of its history is recommended to such readers of the 
French Revolution as have tender hearts only for the 
calamities and dea'th which overtook the royal family in 
those days of carnage. Divested of prejudice, and that 
maudlin sentimentality which encircles the person of 
Kings and Queens with the nimbus of perfection, such 
readers will find abundant material upon which to justify 
the opinion, that the fate which befell royalty was not so 
much the bloodthirstiness of the French people as simple 
retribntive justice, which sooner or later overtakes all 
tyrants, individual or official. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ASSAULT UPON THE BASTILE, JULY 14th, 1789. 

The question springs involuntarily to the lips of a nine- 
teenth century reader: ''How did the people so long 
endure this state of things ?" The answer is natural : "The 
ordinary citizen of Paris never entered its gates, and the 
ordinary citizen is a very patient animal as long as he is 
decently clothed and ied." This prison was the prison to 
quiet unfavorable opinions, nursed or expressed against 
all persons in power. 

" But the sentiment of justice was yet in the hearts of 
the common people of France," says Michelet, and the 
still stronger voice of pity, at last spoke to them. The 
denizens of the faubourgs, who were compelled daily to 
pass under the shadow of its blackened walls, began to 
look upon it as an accursed spot. There were many other 
prisons, but this was most hated of all because it was con- 
sidered the embodiment of arbitrary caprice ; a beauro- 
cratic inquisition. 

The court had made the Bastile the domicil of the 
liberal spirits of France — the prison of free thought — and 
all Europe came to consider. Absolutism, Tyranny and 
the Bastile as synonymous terms. 

On the very morning of the ever memorable 14th of 
July, the people were still unarmed. Some powder found 
in tj*e Arsenal had been distributed during the night, but 
no arms. It was known that the Government had a large 
quantity stored at the Hotel des Invalides, guarded by the 
old veteran Sonibreuil, a brave man^ who had been re- 
inforced by a strong detachment of artillery; also, that 
General Besenval, with an army of foreign mercenaries, 

GG 



ASSAULT UPON THE BA8TILE. 67 

was at the military school within a stone's throw of the* 
former building. 

Besenval had received no orders from Versailles, and 
Avhen 30,000 of the people, headed by several companies 
of the French guards, reached the doors of the Hotel des 
Invalides, they were met by no opposition. A short par- 
ley was held with the old veteran Sombreuil. In a good- 
natured way, he said, " he was an honorable soldier and 
could not be expected willingly to surrender the arms 
which had been entrusted to his keeping." ''But," he 
added, "I expect a reply to a message sent by courier 
to Versailles soon, and you will have to wait for that/' 
While no one was disposed to do violence to the old sol- 
dier, the arms must be had! Time was pressing! Even 
while the parley was in progress a portion of the impa- 
tient citizens had already jumped the ditches, scaled the 
walls, and quietly opened the boxes in the basement con- 
taining the muskets. So expeditiously had the work been 
done that in two short hours after reaching the gates 
28,000 small arms and twenty pieces of artillery were in 
the hands of the enthusiastic people. 

In the meantime an immense throng had collected 
about the Bastile, six miles away. Few were armed, and 
the demand made upon other arsenals for muskets was 
denied. The garrison ac the Bastile had been under arms 
all night, and the detachment of thirty-two Swiss infantry, 
brought in as reinforcements, were sworn by the Governor, 
'' to kill the first man that refused to do his duty." 

The eighty-two veterans, who manned the heavy guns, 
had friends and relatives among the people, and it was 
feared they would hesitate to mow them down with shell 
and canister or blow up their houses, should it become 
necessary. A little prodding by bayonets might be 
required, and thus this squad of foreign infantry had been 
promptly provided by the Government. 



6S TEE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

In addition to the heavy guns in the embrasures and 
upon the towers^ a number of field-pieces charged with 
canister had been planted in the court, facing the doors. 
Loads of heavy paving stones had been carried to the bat- 
tlements, to be thrown upon the assailants should any 
appear. The buildings belonging, but situated outside 
the walls, the guard house and kitchen had been evacuated 
and all made ready for the great citadel of Paris to do 
its work whenever called upon by the inner circle of the 
court. Thus were the decks cleared for action on the 
morning of the 14th of July, 1789. 

At ten o'clock a committee of the Electors were sent to 
the Bastile with the request to Governor De Launay, " that 
he withraw the guns sweeping the streets of the city." To 
this he agreed and further promised that, unless the fort- 
ress were attacked, he would not open fire. 

From this it would appear that the Electors did not 
entertain the idea of reducing the Bastile by arms. A 
quasi-neutrality was all they could expect, and this infer- 
ence is still more plausible, when it is considered that 
two deputations were sent to De Launay, asking him to 
admit a detachment of the Parisian militia, to act in 
conjunction with the garrison. This request was made 
upon the ground that the city ought to have control over 
all the military forces stationed within its limits. But, 
De Launay, strong in the belief that General Besenval's 
army would attempt to disperse the people that very 
night, turned a deaf ear to every . request of this nature. 
After arms had been secured at the Hotel des Invalides, 
all seemed involuntarily to turn towards the Bastile. 
In human streams they came, and as their numbers 
swelled to thousands and tens of thousands, what was in 
the mind of a few, like a deadly contagion, spread to 
the minds of the many. The faint demand at first made 
for terms was now changed to "absolute surrender" 



AS8A ULT UPON THE BA8TILE. 69 

M. Thuriot, an elector and a trusted leader, was now 
admitted to the fortress. De Launay received him with 
an air of hauteur, but listened attentively to what he had 
to say. *' Sire/' said the elector, ^'in the name of the 
people of France, I request you to retire your guns from 
the towers and to surrender the Bastile."'' Turning to 
the company standing in line he repeated his request. 
But De Launay was a jailer, with all that the term 
implies. He had grown wealthy at the expense of the 
unfortunates placed under his charge. Such men are 
always brave in the face of helpless men, but, when con- 
fronted by men armed with Justice and the necessary 
weapons to enforce their demands, they are craven cow- 
ards. The Governor's conscience, or rather the remem- 
brance of his acts of cruelty, and his inhuman avarice now 
rose up to torment him. He felt the antipathy of the 
people in every clamoring shout that reached his ears 
from without. He dared not trust himself to their mercy, 
and the only promise he would make was not to fire unless 
attacked. 

Thereupon the elector withdrew, and in company with 
the committee, followed by a throng of people, retired to 
the City Hall (Hotel de Ville) to make his report. 

The Place-de-Greve, in front of this edifice, now pre- 
sented a strange sight. It was soon to become the central 
point of the Paris rebellion. On, the curious and excited 
crowd came, filling the large open space in front, pushing 
into the building, where, standing about the doors of the 
permanent committee room, they waited news of De Lau- 
nay's decision. 

In the meantime soldiers from the various regiments 
were beginning to fraternize with the people. These 
were taken and borne in triumph along the streets, 
while those who were suspected of undue friendliness 
towards the court were correspondingly roughly treated. 



:o THE FOES OF THE FRENCU REVOLUTION. 

M. Flesselles, the provost of the merchants, who had 
offended some of the people by failing to keep his promise 
to SLi^jply them with arms^ and who was thought to be in 
sympathy with the conservatives^ presided at the commit- 
tee meeting. His attempts to quell the tumult were 
answered with scoffs, and finally, his voice being drowned 
in murmurs of disapproval, M. Thusiot arose to speak. 
He was attentively listened to, his report in a measure 
calming the excitement around him. At this opportune 
moment the chairman, Flesselles, presented an address to 
the people, reiterating the peaceable intentions of the 
Governor of the Bastile. While Thuriot was reading the 
proclamation the booming of cannon was heard in the 
direction of the Bastile, and the cry of " Treason ! '^rose at 
once from a thousand throats. A few minutes later the 
crowd opened for a man wounded in the arm to pass, 
followed by a dying soldier of the French guard borne on 
a litter. The news was now carried from mouth to mouth 
that the batteries of the Bastile had opened upon the 
people with terrific effect. 

This was the spark that set the fire ablaze. Had 
deceit been practiced upon them by both Flesselles and 
De Launay ? Such appeared to be the fact from an inter- 
cepted letter written to the Governor by General Besenval, 
urging him '''to hold the fortress as succor was near at 
hand." 

The cry ''To arms \" was now heard in every direc- 
tion. Five pieces of artillery taken in the morning from 
the Hotel des Invalides still stood in front of the city hall. 
One of the electors stepped forward and called for men 
who could handle these guns. At the call a man pushed 
to the front wearing the uniform of a royal artillerist. 
"Who are you? "was asked by the elector. "Georget, 
gunne* of the navy, just returned from America. 
Debarked a week ago at Brest ; in Paris but a few hours. 




LAFAYETTE KISSING THE HAND OF THE QUEEN UPON THE 
BALCONY OF THE CHATEAU AT VERSAILLES. 



ASSAULT UPON THE BASTILE. 71 

Seeing the confusion, I ran to The Invalides, took a mus- 
ket and have since been hunting for General Lafayette^ 
under whom I have served so long. I wait your orders. 
For liberty I risked my life in America ; for liberty I will 
give my life to France!" 

Cheer upon cheer answered these patriotic words. 
Four more gunners now stepped to the front. The enthu- 
siastic people seized the gun carriages and whirled them 
down the street, leaving the committee to deliberate upon 
the advisability of dispatching another deputation to 
Governor De Launay. Deciding in the affirmative they 
hurried to the Bastile, but upon reaching the ground the 
smoke and noise prevented their being even recognized. 
The time for parleying had passed. 

True to his promise De Launay had not fired until 
attacked!. It was the people that opened hostilities. 
With the muskets they had taken from the Armory in the 
morning they began firing at the sentinels pacing the 
towers. To this harmless attack there was no reply. But 
when an ex-soldier scaled the outer guard-house, and with 
a hatchet cut the chain holding up the draw-bridge, which 
fell with a loud crash, the f usilade from the fortress began 
in earnest. Unheeding this fire the besiegers poured over 
the bridge into the outer court where they were received 
with terrific vollies of musketry and driven back. One 
of the principal leaders in the attacking party, Hnllin by 
name, a Geneva watchmaker, seeing the impossibility of 
reducing the fortress by any other method than a regular 
attack, hastened to the barracks of the French Guards, and 
was received with open arms. 

*'We are all soldiers of a common country, said a 
young sergeant, stepping out of the ranks. Wherever the 
people are assailed we are for the people." This young 
repul lican, afterwards the celebrated General Hoche, was 
joined by another guard, Lefebver. These two, with 



72 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 

Hullin between them, followed by three hundred of the 
Guards, and two pieces of artillery, marched to the Bastile, 
amid the shouts of the peoj)le lining the streets. 

These three men afterward became famous upon the 
pages of French history. Hoche died, it is said, of Eng- 
lish poison, surrounded by his sorrowing troops, General- 
in-Chief of the Army. Lefebver, after twenty victories 
in the field, died Marshal of France and Duke of Dan- 
zig, v/hile Hullin became a Lieutenant-General. The 
great Marceau, also, was one of the adventurous spirits 
now attacking the Bastile. 

Upon the arrival of these French Guards, all the out- 
buildings of the fortress were found to be in flames. 
Every assault had been repulsed with shot and canister, 
killing and woundiug many and dispersing the rest. 

Elie, a fraternizing Sergeant of the army had brought 
up fresh reinforcements, and under his direction the can- 
non of the people soon responded to the cannon of the 
Bastile. Both soldiers and citizens now hurrying to the 
roofs of adjacent houses, soon succeeded in driving the 
men from the guns on the parapet; the cannons below 
were useless, as they could not be sufficiently depressed to 
reach the besiegers nearer the walls. 

The struggle was an unequal one; but the moral weight 
remained with the attacking party. Men who at first had 
shrugged their shoulders at the desperate undertaking, 
now not only demanded the surrender, but the e"ntire 
destruction of the detested prison. 

From the very beginning, its defense by the veterans, 
who had been in daily intercourse with the people of the 
faubourgs, had been carried on half-heartedly. They 
were filled with surprise and consternation upon seeing 
the French Guards handling the guns of the people, and 
at last, without waiting for orders, hoisted the white flag; 



ASSAULT UPON THE BASTILE. 73 

but tbe smoke of the burning outbuildings prevented it 
from being seen by the besiegers. 

Governor De Launay, fully understanding the desperate 
situation in which he was placed^ and anticipating the 
fate which awaited him, when the dungeons beneath his 
feet were inspected, lighted an artillery match, approached 
the powder magazine — containing 150 barrels of powder — ■ 
with the intention of blowing himself, soldiers, prisoners 
and the fortress to atoms. A sentinel perceiving his 
object, and lowering his bayonet against him, frustrated 
the attempt. De Launay then drew a dagger intending 
to commit suicide, but the knife was wrenched from his 
hand. 

The commander of the Swiss company called to rein- 
force the garrison, now assumed the responsibility of sur- 
rendering the prison. Writing his conditions, namely, 
" The honors of war!" upon a slip of paper, he passed it 
through an embrasure. 

^'No; no arms in the hands of officers or men!'' was 
the reply. 

" That the lives of the garrison be spared!'* was now 
asked. 

This was promised by Hullin and Elie, the two leaders 
of the besiegers. 

The other drawbridge was then lowered and the elated 
and victorious throng poured into the fortress. Into every 
nook and corner of this relique of royal barbarism they 
were soon peering. 

Says Dussaloulx, ^^Like hungry vultures they threw 
themselves upon their precious trophy. Eagerly they 
search its depths and thread its sinuosities. Others feel 
their way along the dark staircases; mount the platforms, 
where they insult the cannons; break into the chamber 
of the council, where the creatures of royal power judged 
without law, and ordered executions without remorse. 



74 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

Ftipers, whose formidable evidences against old and new 
despots, were discovered and fortunately saved, as signals 
of danger to future despots." 

The supposition would be natural, that an outraged 
people, who for ten hours had been under the most 
intense excitement, exposed to the deadly fire of a sol- 
diery, partially composed of foreigners, with a loss of 
more than two hundred killed and wounded, would not 
have stood long upon ceremony when the interior of the 
prison was reached, but rather, would have hastened to 
massacre the whole garrison, or at least the Swiss rein- 
forcements. 

But not so. With the exception of an old veteran, 
killed by mistake, not a soul there was harmed. Their 
thoughts were bent upon other things. 

On they hurried to the towers in whicn were situated 
the dungeons and cells. From every mouth were heard 
cries and shouts for the turnkeys to come and unlock the 
doors. Where were they? They had mingled with the 
besiegers, to escape identity. As a last refuge, axes were 
brought, and the heavy, double doors of iron were burst 
open. With flambeaus these damp, cold sepulchres, nine- 
teen feet below the level of the court-yard, were entered. 
Here were found piteous appeals cut in the slimy wall. 
Six prisoners of State are embraced and told to walk forth 
into God's light. The last door is reached. There is dif- 
ficulty in breaking it down. Suddenly cries are heard 
from within. The force of the strokes are redoubled, and 
finally an opening is made. What is there seen ? A fright- 
ened, delirious old man, with haggard face, a long, thin 
beard, and hair as white as snow. 

When quieted he is questioned. He speaks softly the 
names of Louis XV., of Pompadour, the Duke de la 
Vrilliere. He is told '''that all these despots are dead! 
that the reign of liberty and law has begun in France; 



ASSAULT UPON TEE BA8TILE. 75 

that the Bastile is in the hands of the people." With the 
smile of an imbecile the old man listens, but makes no 
reply, and soon resumes his seat upon the bed. Thinking 
his sudden joy and surprise may have dethroned his reason, 
they embrace him and carry him out to be cheered by his 
countrymen; but alas, it is soon discovered he is hopelessly 
insane. 

This man, Tavernier, had been a prisoner ten years at 
the Marguerite Islands, and thirty years in the Bastile, and 
for what? It has never been known. Everything had 
been obliterated from his mind but the names of the three 
persons ; the King, his mistress, and the Minister of State, 
who, undoubtedly, had been his persecutors. 

Fourteen prisoners in all were found in the Bastile, 
seven of State, and seven supposed to be criminals, though 
not one had been tried or convicted by a court of justice, 
which raises the suspicion that none were guilty. 

A procession was now formed — such a procession as the 
world, before nor since, has never seen. 

In passing out of the second court a man from the 
throng, enraged at the spectacle before him, seized the 
queue of De Launay and tore it off. 

''All, gentlemen," said he, addressing Hullin and 
Cholat, between whom he walked, '^you have promised 
not to abandon me. Remain with me until I reach the 
Hotel de Ville." 

'^ I shall keep my promise,"" replied Hullin. " Do you 
not see that we are protecting your life at the risk of our 
own ?" 

As self-appointed commander, Hullin succeeded in 
establishing something like order in this unnatural 
pageant. 

At the head marched young Elie, with the printed 
rules of the Bastile fluttering from the point of his bayo- 
net. Then came De Launay guarded as before descr bid, 



76 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

followed by his released victims^, the garrison^ the besieg- 
ers and citizens. Thus^ advancing slowly, amid the deaf- 
ening yells, the parrying of saber strokes, and bayonet 
stabs, they near the City Hall. Already three of the 
minor officers of the Bastile have fallen victims to the 
rage of the populace. The sworn protectors of De Launay, 
with the exception of Hullin, have been pushed aside. 

To the Place De Greve, he is able to maintain his foot- 
ing, though pressed upon from all sides. But in his 
anxiety to reach the first step of the City Hall, he stum- 
bles and falls to the ground. His trembling prisoner is 
snatched from his gras]3, and before Hullin can rise to 
his feet, the head of the abhorred Governor adorns a pike 
and is borne aloft from the steps of the City Hall. 

The other officers of the Bastile being in immediate 
danger of being torn to pieces by the excited citizens, Hullin 
and Elie harrangue them from the steps, urging them 
to not disgrace the day by cowardly murdering unarmed 
men. Accordingly, with the exception of De Launay's 
death, two veterans and one officer, whose blackened 
faces showed recent service at the guns of the Bastile, 
no excesses were committed before the City Hall. 

The Swiss soldiers and veterans, after taking the oath 
of fealty to the Nation, were taken to the quarters of the 
French Guards, and provided with lodgment and rations. 
In the meantime a deputation from the improvised tri- 
bunal in session at the Palais Eoyal had been sent to cite 
Provost Flesselles before it; he was requested to follow 
them without delay; he did so hesitatingly, but had 
hardly walked a square when he was shot dead by a young 
man in the crowd. This was the last victim of the day. 

" The dense multitude crowding the City Hall did not 
wish for bloodshed," says Michelet. "According to an 
eye-witness, they were stupified on beholding it. They 
stared, gaping, at that very strange, prodigious, grotesque 




C 

< 

1-5 

K 
H 

O 

o 

H 



ASS A ULT UPON THE BASTILE. 77 

and maddening spectacle, Arms of the middle ages and 
of every age, were mingled together — centuries had come 
back again. Elie, standing upon a table, with a helmet 
on his brow, and a sword, hacked in three places, in his 
hand, seemed a Eoman warrior. 

What was most admirable was the magnanimous con- 
duct of the widows of those of the people who were slain 
at the Bastile. Though needy and burdened with chil- 
dren, they were unwilling to receive alone the small sum 
allotted to them — they shared it with the widow of the 
poor invalid who had prevented the Bastile from being 
blown up by De Launay, and was killed by mistake. The 
wife of the besieged Avas adopted, as it were, by those of 
the besiegers. Thus closed that glorious 14th of July, 
1789/' 



CHAPTEE IX. 

THE IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL OF THE BASTILE. 

While these momentous events were transpiring in 
Paris, the National Assembly, sitting permanently at 
Versailles, "vvere fully aware of the revolutionary state of 
feeling which prevailed there among the lower classes. 
These were not effectively armed, and could make little 
resistance to the adva.noe of the royal army into Paris. 
All tliey had dared and gained, was now in danger of being 
lost. 

The day of the storming of the Bastile had been a day 
of anxious suspense and secret forebodings. 

Late in the afternoon news of the surrender of the 
fortress and the assassination of De Launay was received. 
The scene changed as if by enchantment. The Assembly 
being justly enraged at the ministers, Mirabeau boldly 
demanded the head of the Duke de Brogiie. 

The King had gone to sleep. Being awakened by the 
Duke of Liancourt and informed of the capture of the 
prison, he exclaimed ! 

" Why, this is revolt." 

" Sire," replied Liancourt, " this is revolution ! " 

Three deputies from the Assembly waited upon the 
King, but not until the following day did His Majesty 
consent to appear in the Assembly, when he informed the 
members that orders for the return of the army to 
Versailles had been issued, and defended himself against 
the suspicion of seeking to overawe the Assembly. 

His assurances were applauded, and while being con- 
ducted back to the chateau, he was generously cheered 

78 



79 CONSEQUENQES OF FALL OF BA8TILE. 

by the people. He did not tell them, however, that royal 
troops had been intercepting conveyances for the provis- 
ioning of Paris, both at Severs and St. Denis. The people 
of Paris were already clamoring for bread, and it was 
believed this was one of the details of the plan to bring 
the city to submission. 

But, hungry as they were, they were fully determined 
that nevermore should king or queen, minister or prince 
be able to thrust into the foul dungeons of the Bastile, 
any citizen who had incurred their displeasure, or whom 
it was necessary the world should "'forget." 

With spikes and bars in the hands of a regenerated 
people, the work of casting stone after stone of the ancient 
pile to the ground beneath was begun on the 16th. With 
earnest hearts and dextrous hands its demolition was 
finally accomplished. (These same dumb blocks of granite 
were afterwards used in the construction of a bridge across 
the Seine.) 

The destruction of the Bastile had for the time being 
put an end to all royal conspiracies. The King, surren- 
dering at discretion, had even gone so far as to ask the 
Assembly to become the intermedium between himself and 
Ms people at Paris. 

Accordingly, eighty-eight of its members were dele- 
gated to proceed to the capital at once. Lafayette, Bailly, 
Sieyes, and the Archbishop of Paris led the deputa- 
tion. They were received at the barriere (city gate) by 
an immense concourse of people, and conducted to the 
City Hall. After many speeches and bursts of deafening 
applause on witnessing the congratulations between the 
heroes of the Bastile and those of the Tennis Court, Bailly 
was proclaimed Mayor of Paris and Lafayette commandant 
of the National Guards. 

During the night, between the 16th and 17th of July, 
Count D'Artois, brother of the King, the Polignacs, 



so THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLVTION. 

the Broglies, the Foulons, and some of the princes of 
the blood, took to their heels, under strong escort, and 
all, the Foulons excepted, succeeded in reaching the fron- 
tier. This was the signal for a general exodus of the Hue 
blood of France. The flight was as timely as it was sud- 
den. The anti-revolutionary conspiracy was now known 
to some members of the Assembly. M. de BreteuiFs ulti- 
matum — to destroy Paris and decimate the inhabitants if 
necessary to re-establish the old order of things — had been 
divulged; so, also, the plan of execution, namely, to attack 
the city on the night of the 14th, at seven different points, 
for which the regiments and batteries had been designated 
and the commanders subsequently appointed; to dis- 
perse the JSTational Assembly and arrest the leaders 
of the Third Estate; to call the Parliament of Paris to 
register a royal decree for the suspension of payments 
and the creation of a new paper currency. 

The retreat of Besenval with his army, on the night of 
the 14th, had frustrated the conspiracy, and hence the 
abandonment of the field and flight of the conspirators. 

Before departing, however, and in order to escape the 
suspicion tbat the King had been cognizant of their treason, 
it was agreed that he should visit Paris, and throw himself 
upon the loyalty of his people, as he had done before with 
the Assembly. In pursuance of this plan, at nine o'clock 
on the morning of the 18th, His Majesty, accompanied by 
several hundred Deputies, set out for his Capital. He 
was met by Mayor Bailly, and slowly through the 
immense throng the cortage took its way to the City Hall. 
It was Paris in arms, either with muskets, pikes or swords 
that he saw. This strange reception of a loyal people 
seemed to completely overcome the King. Nevertheless 
they appeared pleased to see him. These good people still 
loved their King ; no cheers, however, except "Vive la 
Nation ! " greeted his ears. 



CONSEQUENCES OF FALL OF BA8TILE. 81 

At the City Hall, he was presented, by M. Bailly, 
with the three- colored cockade, which he was asked to 
accept as the distinctive badge of a Frenchman. He 
attached it to his hat and was loudly cheered. To the 
address of welcome, expressing unfeigned attachment to 
his person, he had no word of reply ; but when taken to 
the balcony, where he stood for fifteen minutes, gazing at 
the multitude, the meaningless remark, "You can always 
rely upon my love, '^ escaped his lips, for which he received 
the usual " Vive le Eoi !'' 

Entering his carriage he returned as mute as he had 
come. Upon arriving at Versailles he was received by the 
Queen with unfeigned demonstrations of joy. Both had 
been favorably disappointed. The journey, undertaken with 
many misgivings, and as a desperate but unavoidable step, 
had not ended in harm to the head of the government. 
They were both thankful. The King had even been 
received kindly ; the citizens had cheered him ; he had 
returned to his family safely. **La Canaille fut ap- 
paise ! " 

A Communal Council of sixty members was now elected; 
thirty members composed the Executive Board. This 
board, with Bailly as mayor and Lafayette as comman- 
der of the militia, constituted the new Municipal Govern- 
ment of Paris. 

About a week after the razing of the Bastile, and 
when the excitement was still at its height, a most unfor- 
tunate circumstance occurred. 

M. Foulon, a man of seventy-two years of age, was, 
perhaps, the most despised man in France. He had 
become immensely wealthy on contracts, as intendant of 
the army, usury, and in grain and other speculations. He 
was a favorite at court, as all wealthy men at that time 
were. Foulon had expected to be called to th"e ministry 
at the time Necker was dismissed. 



S2 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

It was reported of liim that, when told the people 
were hungry, he had exclaimed : 

"Let them eat grass; if I were minister, I would 
make them eat hay." 

He lived in a magnificent palace, and insolently 
laughed at the suffering he had helped to create. His 
son-in-law, M. Berthier, had been the king's tax-gatherer 
in Paris. At the fall of the Bastile, these two men, with 
guilty consciences, had fled, but, being discovered, were 
arrested and brought back, Foulon with a bundle of hay 
tied to his neck. 

At sight of these two men, the hungry people became 
furious, and the efforts of Bailly and Lafayette to save 
them were without avail. They were slain and their 
ghastly heads borne upon pikes through the streets of 
Paris. 

The summary and brutal massacre of these men was 
to be regretted. "But," asks Michelet of the English 
writers, such as Burke, who seized upon this incident to 
denounce the Eevolution, "what would you have done — 
tell me, you officious advisors, who at your ease are sitting 
upon the dead bodies of Ireland, Italy, and Poland? 
Have not your revolutions of interest lost more blood than 
our revolutions of ideas ? " However, this does not 
answer the question. The fall of the Bastile, if it meant 
anything, meant the downfall of arbitrary government in 
France and the rule of law. Acts of lawlessness, when 
committed by the people, were no less reprehensible than 
when committed by despotic authority. Under the con- 
ditions then prevailing, the escape of the two men from 
execution was impossible. The irregularity of the pro- 
ceedings and their hasty execution, however, furnished 
the enemies of the revolutionary movement with a weapon 
to assail the cause. It gave new impetus to the reaction- 
ary sentiment, always active among the privileged classes. 




P 



C02fSEQ UE^'CES OF FALL OF BA8TLLE. 83 

and in a measure justified tlie feeling of regret at the 
loss of a strong governmentj expressed by the always 
timid bourgeois. 

Therefore the murder of these two men, however much 
deserved, was a mistake; it was more than a mistake; it 
was a crime against a holy cause. The real friends of the 
peojjle, both at Versailles and Paris, were of this opinion at 
the time. Lafayette was one of these ; every means at his 
command he had made use of to save them, and in order 
to show his disapproval and indignation at such actS; he 
sent to Mayor Bailly a letter in which he said: '^ Hav- 
ing been put in the command of the militia of the 
capital by the confidence of its citizens, now, that their 
confidence in my ability to preserve order has been with- 
drawn, this being evidenced by the forcible taking of 
Foulon and Berthier from my guards and putting them 
to death, it becomes my duty to surrender a post in which 
to remain I must purchase public favor favor by unjustly 
yielding to its wishes." 

This action of the popular general created consterna- 
tion among the members of the municipality. A com- 
mittee was appointed to represent to him the dangerous 
situation in which they were placed, the effect upon the 
royalists of such a hasty course, and the possibility of 
losing all that had been gained. Lafayette listened to 
their request, and, being earnestly devoted to the cause of 
the people, he was prevailed upon to remain. 

The enthusiasm caused by the progress made at Ver- 
sailles and the razing of the Bastile, spread like wild fire 
throughout France. But while the significance of the 
event brought hopes to the hearts of the toiling and 
oppressed, it also opened the door to the worst passions of 
hate and revenge. Hundreds of castles were burnt, many 
of the most obnoxious nobles, intendants of estates, and 
tax-gathers, fell victims to the fury of the peasantry. 



84 TEE FOES OF TEE FRENCE REVOLUTION. 

The situation bears some resemblance to the period in 
the late war when Abraham Lincoln issned his emancipa- 
tion proclamation, with this difference, however, that the 
slaves in France belonged to the Caucasian race; had 
enjoyed the freedom of starving, and felt that retribu- 
tive justice demanded the swift and condign punishment 
of some of their hardest task masters. 

These French peasants hastened to the castles for the 
purpose of destroying the original charters, those primi- 
tive parchment documents, adorned with great seals 
and stored away in its turrets. No important feudal 
manor existed that had not its tower of archieves. The 
peasants went straight ±o the towers. There was their 
Bastile ; there were preserved the instruments of tyranny, 
greed, and insolence which had blighted their hopes and 
made their lives the life of an ox, or a less tractable ani- 
mal. These towers, of a barbarous age, had become objects 
of intense hatred, and repeated every morning what was 
recorded within. 

'' Work, work on, oh, sons of serfs; earn for another's 
profit, another's ease, another's happiness, until the clod 
shall cover us both." The day of reckoning had come at 
last. It had been long in coming. Their fathers 
and. fathers' fathers had looked for it, dreamed of it, and 
now it had come. No more bowing of the knee and swear- 
ing to give up soul, body and mind to the grand seignior. 
These titles to human bodies must be destroyed. For 
weeks, incendiarism, devastation and murder were the 
daily events throughout the rural districts. Thousands 
of nobles fled to the cities for protection, or left France 
altogether. 

''All this pillage and murder, however," says Mich- 
elet, ''should not be charged to the peasants. In the 
confusion consequent upon loss of employment, the peo- 
ple driven by hunger from hamlet to village, from village 



CONSEQUENCES OF FALL OF BASTILE. 85 

to city, these depredations against the lords should not 
alone be laid at the door of the domiciled peasantry/^ 

Everybody Avas armed, and absolute anarchy was only 
prevented in the country by the prompt organization of 
municipal and National Guards. 



CHAPTER X. 

AUGUST 4TH, ABOLITION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM — LAFAY- 
ETTE'S BILL OF RIGHTS. 

The JSTational Assembly at Versailles, which thus far 
had been engaged in formulating principles upon the 
" Rights of Man/' now began to realize that it was the 
only authority which commanded the respect of the people 
and whose orders would be obeyed. It further keenly 
realized that famishing Paris must be relieved by imme- 
diate and vigorous action. 

It was at first proposed to establish bureaus of relief and 
work-shops to keep the people busy — mere useless experi- 
ments. 

However, on the 4th of August, 1789, one of the most 
memorable events in the history of France took place; 
an event, it is safe to say, unparalleled in the annals of any 
country. The Duke d'Aiguillon, next to Louis XVI., the 
wealthiest man in France, in a speech violently attacked 
the feudal system — the system of which he was the fore- 
most representative. "''Are these peasants," he asked, 
"^'who have been destroying our castles, really guilty? 
Let us remove the cause of their vengeance, and peace and 
harmony will soon prevail." This appeal, and the Duke's 
proposition to offer the peasant the privilege of purchasing 
his exemption from further feudal burdens at a moderate 
price, was received with cheers and bravos. 

The Duke was followed by Leguen de Kerengal, who, 
in the same vein, said: ''We ought to be just. Let these 
documents — monuments of our fathers' barbarity — be 
brought forth. Who among us will hesitate to throw his 

86 



ABOLITION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 87 

infamous parchment npon tlie joyre of expiation ? We 
have no time for dallying. Every moment occasions new 
cause for conflagrations. Shall we give laws only to 
France in ruins?" 

This burst of patriotism electrified the Assembly. 
Members now vied with each other in generous offers to 
join in a movement for the abolition of serfdom; to do 
away with the collection of tithes; the corvee ; seigniorial 
dues, exclusive game laws; the privileges and immunities 
of the nobility, and the sale of civil and military offices. 

The wildest excitement prevailed. " Never did the 
French character shine forth more charmingly in its benev- 
olence, vivacity and generous enthusiasm/' says Michelet. 
*^ These men, who had required so much time to discuss 
the ' Declaration of Rights/ counting and weighing every 
sentence, now having an appeal made to their manliness, 
trod money under foot, and those rights of nobility, which 
they loved more than money, were swept away without a 
regret. Every thing now seemed finished." 

At 2 o'clock in the morning the Assembly adjourned. 
That night saw the death of Feudality, not only in France, 
but the blow was struck which abolished the system 
throughout continental Europe. To commemorate this 
event a medal was ordered to be struck, and the title 
" Eestorer of French Liberty," voted to the King. Louis 
accepted the compliment, but refused to sanction their 
generous act until compelled by the force of circumstances 
to obey. 

Some dyspeptic writers, desiring to rob the French 
people of the honor of this Spartan deed, say it was 
merely the effervescence of an after-dinner party; in other 
words, that the members were very drunk. If they were, 
the wine they were made drunk upon ought to become the 
vintage of the world. 

Sometime in July General Lafiyette submitted to the 



88 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

Assembly a '' Declaration of Eights/^ of which the follow- 
ing is a copy : 

*'I. Nature has made all men free and equal; the 
distinctions which are necessary for social order are 
formed alone upon public good . 

II. Man is born with inalienable and imprescriptible 
rights; such as the unshackled liberty of opinion; the care 
of his honor and life; the right of property; the complete 
control over his person, his labor, and all his faculties; the 
free expression of his opinion on every possible subject; the 
right of worship and resistance against all oppression. 

III. The exercise of natural rights has no other limit 
than that necessary to secure their enjoyment to every 
member of society. 

IV. No man can submit to laws, which he has not 
sanctioned, either himself or through his representatives, 
and which have not been properly promulgated and legally 
executed. 

V. The principle of all sovereignty rests in the people. 
No body of men nor individuals can possess any authority 
which does not expressly emanate from the Nation. 

VI. The sole end of all government should be the 
public good. That good demands that the legislative, 
executive, and judicial powers shall be distinct and 
defined, and that their organization shall secure the free 
representation of the citizens, the representation of their 
deputies, and the impartiality of the judges. 

VII. The laws ought to be clear, precise, and uniform 
in their operation toward every class of citizens. 

VIII. Subsidies ought to be liberally granted, (?) and 
the taxes proportionably distributed. 

IX. As the introduction of abuses, and the rights of 
succeeding generations, will require the revision of all 
human institutions, the Nation ought to possess the power, 
in certain cases, to summon an extraordinary assembly of 




DROUET. 



ABOLITION OF TEE FEUDAL SYSTEM. S9 

Deputies, whose sole object it shall be to examine, and cor- 
rect, if it be necessary, the faults of the Constitution/^ 

It is easy to see, that in drawing this declaration, 
General Lafayette had that of the American Colonists 
before him, as, with few exceptions, it breathes the 
same spirit, if not expressed in the same words. Art. VIII 
shows how difficult it is for a nobleman, however liberal 
and enlightened, to emancipate himself from the paternal- 
istic system of public administration. 

Lafayette's proposed declaration was not accepted; but 
that of M. Mounier, which did not differ materially from 
his, after mature deliberation, was finally adopted. 

Previous to the 4:th of August, there had been no polit- 
ical division of the Assembly, the members being classed 
by orders. Now that these had been substantially abol- 
ished, they arranged themselves by parties. 

The adherents of the ancient regime — the reactionists 
— took seats on the right side of the Hall, and were called 
the *' Right," the constitutional monarchists occupied 
the center and were denominated the ''Center," while 
the progressive members and Democrats took the left, and 
called themselves the " Left." In the course of events, 
further subdivisions took place, as the "Extreme Eight" 
and "Extreme Left." 

The most active of the members, and for the time being 
the most noted, were Abbe Sieyes, Barnave, Lameth, 
d'Espermeuil, Cazales and the Abbe Maury, the last two 
representatives of the court party and higher clergy. 
Eobespierre was then little more than an observer. "But 
conspicuous among all parties," says Carlyle, "stood the 
royal Mirabeau — above and beyond them all, this man rose 
higher and higher; he was a reality; his fame had reached 
all lands, and it gladdened the heart of the crabbed old 
** Friend of Man" (Mirabeau's father), before he died. 

The picture drawn of his son by the elder Mirabeau^ in 



90 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

writing to 'a friend, showed the embryo statesman as he 
came to be. 

"I have nothing to tell you about my enormous son, 
except that he beats his nurse, and is as ugly as the son of 
Satan/' 

At the age of five, the father again writes of him: '^ I 
have put him into the hands of Poisson, who is as attached 
to me as a spaniel, and I really thank him very much for the 
ed ucation he is giving the young monkey. If he makes a good 
and firm citizen of him, that is all that is necessary. With 
these qualities, he will make the race of pigmies tremble 
who assumes to play the part of grandees at the court. 

A part is to be played to-night in a comedy by this 
young monster they call my son. If he were the son of the 
greatest actor he could not more naturally play the part of 
buffoon, mimic, comedian. His body grows, his bab- 
bling increases and his features are becoming marvelously 
ugly — ugly beyond all possible rivalship, and still more, 
he is a random speechifier. He is sickly, and if I were 
obliged to create a substitute for him, where in the world 
should I find one ? His is a contrary, fantastic, impetu- 
ous, troublesome spirit, with a leaning to evil before he 
knows what evil is, or is capable of effecting any; a lofty 
heart under the jacket of a child; a strange, but noble 
pride; the embryo of a Hector in a fury, that wishes to 
swallow the world before he is twelve years old.^' 

This roughly-affectionate picture drawn by Mirabeau 
of his son would answer for the full-grown man in many 
particulars. He was repulsively ugly, impetuous and 
troublesome to the end. He not only made the pigmies 
tremble, but the court itself. Whether he was a buffoon, a 
mimic, a comedian, or, under these guises, possessed a 
heart full of noble aspirations, no tongue can tell. His 
worst revilers were forced to admit that he was a man of 
extraordinary genius. 



ABOLITION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 91 

An English incognito biographer of Mirabeau says of 
him: "l^o adequate biographical monument has been 
raised to the memory of this man. I consider him an ill- 
used and misjudged man. His faults were the result of 
an improperly trained,, a scandalously neglected child- 
hood. The brutality with which the father prosecuted 
his son, after his attaining manhood, rendered him, to a 
great extent, responsible for the defaults of character of 
his oflEspring.^' 

Mirabeau's father was a philanthropist, living on his 
estate near Nemours. He was the author of a work 
entitled, '^ A Friend of Mankind." As is often the case, 
the greatest lovers of mankind collectively are the worst 
tyrants individually; such proved to be the character of 
the elder Mirabeau; a proud and irascible man. His son 
was lame and strongly marked with the small-pox, owing 
to which imperfections, it is said, when placed in a mili- 
tary school in Paris, he was entered under an assumed 
name. At the age of eighteen he joined a regiment of 
cavalry, and having contracted some debts and lost some 
money at the gaming table, his father bought a Lettre de 
Cachet and imprisoned him in a fortress on the Isle of 
Ee. After a year's imprisonment the officers reported 
favorably of his conduct, and his father procured him a 
commission as Second Lieutenant in a regiment which was 
sent to Corsica. In 1772 he was allowed to return, also 
through the flattering reports of his superior officers, and 
assume his title of nobility. 

Marrying a poor marchioness, he soon found himself 
in financial straits, from which his father refused to extri- 
cate him. Imprisoned in 1774 in the castle of If, his 
wife praying for his release, his father had him removed to a 
fort in the Jura Mountains. Being permitted occasion- 
ally to visit a neighboring town, he soon fell in love with 
the wife of an old magistrate, Sophie, marchioness de 



92 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

Monnier. The enamored couple eloped to Switzerland, 
and from there to Holland, where Mirabeau tried to 
make a living by translations. He wrote a book on the 
Sale of Hessian Soldiers to England for Service in the 
American War. 

In 1777 both were condemned by the tribunal of Pontar- 
lier — he, sentenced to be beheaded, and she, to imprison- 
ment for life. Mirabeau was imprisoned at Vincennes and 
Sophie immured in a convent at Gien. In his cell Mira- 
beau passed the time writing love-letters to Sophie (which 
was permitted, to keep him from committing suicide) and 
in preparing a work upon the Lettres de Cachet. 

His father had intended to keep him in prison for life, 
but it being represented that his son was losing his sight 
and in a short time must die, to save the name of the 
family, he was liberated, after three years confinement. An 
interview held with So]3hie led to a quarrel, whereupon 
the marchioness committed suicide. His first public 
appearance was at Aix in the legal proceedings instituted 
for the recovery of his wife. Though defeated, his plea 
made him a popular idol. Leaving for England, here he 
passed two years in literary work. Eeturning to Paris in 
1785 he set to work to publish several pamphlets on finan- 
cial subjects. During the four years jorevious to the call- 
ing of the States-General, Mirabeau, published no less 
than fifteen volumes. His Histoire Secrete de la Cour de 
Berlin, written to keep himself from starving, was ordered 
to be burnt. 

This was the man of great natural talent, made better 
by suffering, who now found himself as the acknowl- 
edged leader in the National Assembly. 

The most numerous and influential party in the 
Assembly was undoubtedly the '' Left,^'" known as the 
liberal, or Constitutional Democratic party, of which 
Mirabeau, although independent of all, was the acknowl- 




BARS A YE. 



ABOLITION OF TEE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 9S_ 

edged spokesman. This party represented the views and 
aspirations of the bourgeoisie. This class has often been 
stigmatized as the class of selfishness and greed. But the 
bourgeoisie of France did not merely consist of shop-kee]^- 
ers and traders. As we have already shown, the most 
brilliant writers of the century, and almost all men of the 
liberal professions, the judges and public functionaries, 
belonged to this class, and, as Jules Grenier truly says: 
" The social role of the bourgeoisie was to elevate the 
lower classes. By the application of sound principles of 
political economy, the danger of class distinction could be 
avoided and the avenues to social and political distinction 
opened to all. The bourgeois class was the only one 
which could guarantee to the working classes enduring 
influence for their elevation; it was, also, the only one 
which had a meaning. The bourgeoisie commenced as a 
solvent of feudal society. It prepared the way for democ- 
racy. It would poorly understand its interests, were it to 
oppose that which it contributed to establish. It has 
better work to do. After its negative and dissolving 
labors, some positive work, and the work of organization. 
This remained to be accomplished, and the expression 
bourgeoisie should have no meaning but that of educated 
and intelligent Democracy.'" It was for this class to 
assume control of the government which an impotent, 
iinbecile and corrupt despotism had relinquished. A 
voluntary and immediate acquiescence in the new order of 
things was not to be expected from the privileged classes 
that had heretofore wielded all the political power in the 
state. The material sacrifices they had made on the 4th 
of August, were not to be construed as a surrender of 
political power by any means. On the other hand, the 
representatives of the middle class failed in nerve, or did 
not, with few exceptions, rise to the necessities of the 
occasion. Mirabeau alone encompassed the situation with 



D4 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOL UTION, 

his master mind, when he exclaimed: "Make an execu- 
tive! Create an executive; until you do that your Consti- 
tution is nothing but a humbug, and your Eights of Man 
but so many words." As a writer pointedly remarks, 
'^Mirabeau first aimed at establishing an executive founded 
on a parliamentary majority, but he was not seconded in 
his efforts by the representatives of the middle classes/^ 
Failing to obtain such an executive, through the Assembly, 
he turned to the King, first advising, and then urging him 
to appoint one and sustain him. 

Louis XVI., however, had not advanced so far toward 
a constitutional monarchy, and the Queen was particularly 
hostile to the only man who could have carried out the 
reform — Mirabeau himself. 

The middle class and their representatives being thus 
unprepared to act, the anarchistic mob and their leaders 
soon took affairs into their hands and gradually became 
masters of the capital, of the Assembly, and finally of 
France. 



CHAPTER XL 

EXPOSURE OF THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY CONSPIRACY. 
THE WOMEN OF PARIS MARCH TO VERSAILLES. 

The Assembly went now zealously to work, endeavor- 
ing to formulate a constitution ; they were building 
without a foundation, however. The Declaration of 
Rights and the Decrees of the 4th of August had not yet 
been sanctioned by the King. Not even a formal request 
had been made to that effect. The first great obstacle, 
which should have been removed, was the King's power of 
veto. As long as the King had the absolute power to 
destroy with his veto what the Assembly had formulated, so 
long was legislation useless. Abbe Sieyes opjjosed the veto ; 
he defined it as a simple Lettre de Cacliet, flung by one 
individual against the general will. It was defended by 
the adherents of the court with all the tenacity of despair. 
Singularly enough, Mirabeau, also, favored the King's 
absolute veto. Paris, however, was watching the proceed- 
ings with intense earnestness ; the gamins of her streets 
even seemed to understand the situation much better than 
the lawyers and philosophers of the Assembly. To 
Paris the maintenance of the absolute veto meant the 
surrender of the present to the past. Happily, Lafayette 
was able to prevent an outbreak at this time. 

A book, entitled La France Libre, written by the 
brilliant young Desmoulins, the same who, two days before 
the taking of the Bastile, stood upon a table in the 
Palais Royal inciting the people to arm — appeared at this 
time. He assailed royalty as the enemy to peace. The 
book created a great sensation . 

95 



9G THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

The press, wliicli, since the assembling of the States- 
General, had grown both in members and influence, could 
not be suppressed. 

Among the many newspapers, which had been started 
since May, Les Revolutions de Paris, edited by M. Lous- 
talot, a talented man, became the most popular. He 
made clear to the people the danger of the Veto, and daily 
demanded its abolition. 

The reticence of the King and his refusal to sanction 
what had been proposed by the assembly had a meaning to 
those who understood the state of affairs. Checked in 
their conspiracies by the taking of the Bastile, the court 
and King still continued to plot. The Queen, under the 
leadership of the Austrian ambassador, was preparing 
the country for a second surprise, the details of which were 
published in the "Revolutions de Paris," on the 22d of 
September. 

According to this account, a plot had been matured by 
which the King was to be taken to Metz, the headquarters 
of General Bouille's army ; that the musketeers, the gen- 
darmes, and nine thousand of the King's household, two- 
thirds of whom were noblemen, were to seize Montargis, 
where they would be Joined by the Baron de Viomenii, 
who had served with Lafayette in America, but whose 
jealousy of the latter had caused him to cast himself 
vehemently into the party of the court. Eighteen regi- 
ments had not taken the oath to the Assembly; these were 
enough to block up all roads to Paris, cut off her supplies, 
and starve her malcontents. The court was not in need 
of money ; they were assured of fifteen hiindred thousand 
francs a month, and the clergy would sujoply the rest. 

These reports were not '^absurd rumors," as declared 
by some writers. Such extensive military prejoarations 
can not be kept under lock and key. The proposed flight 
of the King had been the theme of conversation in the 



COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY CONSPIRACY. 97 

salons of Paris for a week before its publication by the 
" Revolutions de Paris ; "' tlie secret was confided to Gen- 
eral Lafayette a month before by no less a personage than 
Admiral d'Estaing, commander of the National Guards 
of Versailles, while dining at the General's house. Paris 
became agitated ; the removal of the King to a fortified 
place near the frontier, in the midst of a large army of 
.. reliable troops, who had not taken the oath of allegiance 
to the nation, commanded by an ardent supporter of the 
royal cause, signified not only civil war, but in all proba- 
bility foreign invasion. M. Bailly, in his official capa- 
city of Mayor, considered it his duty to inform his col- 
leagues of the City Hall of the threatened danger, when 
a deputation, headed by honest old Dussaulx, was sent to 
Versailles to make representations to the King. Further- 
more, Loustalot, the editor of the '■'Revolutions de Paris," 
was not a trifling sensationalist, but a moderate, honest, 
and conscientious journalist, whose noon de plume 
" Prudhomme,^^ is revered to this day in all France. In 
fact, he was one of the most disinterested pioneers of 
French liberty. The people of Paris knew him to be 
honest, they believed his statements to be true, and, what 
is more, future developments have shown they were, liter- 
ally true. 

On the 21st, the day before the publication of the plot, 
the King in replying to. the request of the assembly, for 
his sanction of the decrees of the 4th of August said: 
"That promulgation belonged only to laws invested with 
forms which procure their execution. '" A firm and honest 
JSTo! would not have created greater indignation than this 
evasive and equivocal answer. However, the assembly 
remained inactive. An event took place on the 1st of 
October which added fuel to the already kindled flame. 

The Swiss and Guardes de Corps were desirous of 
giving a grand banquet to the regiment of Flanders, the 



9S TEE FOES OF THE FRENGU RE VOL UTION. 

regiment which had been designated as ^' Guard of Honor'' 
to the King on his flight to Metz. The fete bore signs of 
an official character. " A military repast might have been 
given at the Orangerieor anywhere else/' says the historian 
Michelet. But the King, (an unprecedented favor,) granted 
the use of his magnificent theatre, in which no fete had 
been given since the visit of the emperor Joseph II. 
Wines v/ere lavished upon the troops with royal prodigal-^ 
ity. They drank the health of the King, the Queen, and 
the Dauphin: some one, in a low, timid voice, proposed 
to drink to the Nation, but nobody paid any attention to 
the request. At the dessert the grenadiers of the regi- 
ment of Flanders, the Swiss, and other soldiers were intro- 
duced. They all drank and admired, dazzled by the 
fantastic brilliancy of the fairy-like scene. The boxes 
of the theatre, lined .with looking glasses, reflected a 
blaze of light in every direction. The doors open; Behold 
the King and Queen! The Queen walks round every table 
looking beautiful and motherly with the child she bears 
in her arms. All these young soldiers are delighted, 
transported with admiration. As she left the hall accom- 
panied by the King, the band played the affecting air: 
" Richard, my King, abandoned by the whole world!" 
Several tore off their cockades and took that of the Queen 
— the black Austrian cockade — thus devoting themselves 
to her service. Those who had not the Austrian colors 
turned the tri-color cockade inside out, it appearing white, 
the color of the Bourbons. The music continued even 
more impassioned and ardent: it played the Marche des 
Hulans, and sounded the charge! All leaped to their 
feet and looked about for the enemy. For want of 
adversaries they scaled the boxes, rushed out, and reached 
the marble court." This memorable banquet terminated 
in a disgraceful orgie, during which the National emblem 
was made the principal object of raillery and insult by the 



GOUNTEB-BEVOLUTIONABY CONSPIBAGY. 99 

drunken soldiery. On the 3d of October, the officers of 
the regiment of Flanders returned the compliment by 
giving a grand dinner to their brethren of the Corps de 
Guardes. Similar indecent scenes as those on the previous 
occasion were enacted. After gorging themselves with 
the delicacies of the season and filling themselves with 
champagne, they began to insult some of the invited 
officers of the National Guard of Versailles, inquiring 
how they could wear such a uniform. Remember, that 
while the court is thus feasting, Paris is famishing. Her 
children cry for bread, and mothers have none to give them. 

The Assembly being informed of the disgraceful scenes, 
appointed a committee to look into the matter and to 
administer the oath to the body-guards, but apprehensive 
of trouble, they took no further step. 

''Fancy," says Carlyle, ''what effect this repast and 
trampling on the National cockade must have had in the 
salle des menus in the famishing Baker's-files at Paris. 
Yes, here with us is famine ; but yonder at Versailles, is 
food enough and to spare ! Patriotism stands in file 
shivering, hungerstruck, insulted by patrollism (La- 
fayette's National Guards), while bloody-minded aristo- 
crats, heated with excess of high living, trample on 
the National Cockade. Can the atrocity be true? Are we 
to have a military onfall ; and death also by starvation ? 
For behold, the Corbeil-corn boat, which used to come 
twice a day with its Plaster-of- Paris meal, now comes only 
once. • At the Palais Royal a new thing is seen: A woman 
engaged in public speaking. Her poor man, she says, was 
put to silence by his district; their Presidents and officials 
would not let him speak. "Wherefore, she is here with her 
shrill tongue and will speak; denouncing while her breath 
endures the Corbeil Boat, the Plaster-of-Paris bread; sacri- 
legious opera dinners, green uniforms, pirate aristocrats, 
and those black Austrian cockades." 



100 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 

Sunday, the 4th, passed in sullen tranquillity, thanks 
to Lafayette's patrols, but female vehemence is irrepressi- 
ble. '* The public-speaking woman at the Palais Eoyal was 
not the only talking one. Men know not what the pantry 
is, when it grows empty; only house-mothers know this. 
woman, wives of men, that will only calculate and not 
act ! Patrollism is strong, but death by starvation and 
military onfall is stronger. Will guards, named JSTational, 
thrust their bayonets into the bosoms of women ^" 

The women of the Faubourgs of Paris were now 
thoroughly aroused. It was charged that the Duke of 
Orleans, the King's cousin, had sent his agents into these 
quarters to stir up the people for an attack on Ver- 
sailles. 

The statement was also made that this female move- 
ment was the offspring of Mirabeau's fertile brain, in order 
to aid the King's flight. These meu were not necessary to 
arouse the woman to a state of frenzy. As Carlyle says, 
" Men know not what the pantry is when it grows empty." 
For six months promises had been made that something 
would be done to re-provision these pantries. They had 
become impatient. Their movement was not precon- 
certed, but a spontaneous outburst against the dilly-dally- 
ing policy of the Paris officials, the assembly and the court. 
They were hungry, their children were hungry; their hus- 
bands had no work. Something must be done. They 
would do it. To see the King and tell him face to face of 
their troubles, this was the inspiration of their movement; 
no other. 

Every demonstration on the part of their husbands and 
sons toward sending deputations of complaint to Ver- 
sailles had been summarily repressed by Lafayette's 
National guards. The women, hearing the King was 
going to escape to Metz, exclaimed: '^ "What will become 
of our starving children if the King leaves us ? He must 



GO UNTER-RE VOL VTIONAR T CONSPIRA C T. 10 1 

not be allowed to depart; he must see tliat we are snp- 
jDlied with bread/^ 

Such had been the teaching of feudalism. The King 
could give them prosperity ! The men had been driven 
back by Lafayette's bayonets. His gallantry should be 
put to the test. Women are fertile in expedients. The 
French women had heard of the exploits of the American 
women — respectable women — in their struggle for inde- 
pendence. Was it to be supposed that General Scipio 
Americanus^ as Lafayette was called, would ever order his 
guards to fire upon an assembly of women, and if he did, 
would he be obeyed? ''^Accordingly,^' says Michelet, '''On 
the 5th of October, at seven in the morning, they heard 
the beating of a drum and could no longer resist. A little 
girl taking a drum from the guard house, was seen beating 
the generale." 

It was Monday; the markets were deserted and all 
marched forth. On the streets the women hurried along 
with them, all they happened to meet, threatening to cut 
off the hair of those who were unwilling to join them. 
First they went to the Hotel-de-Ville. There a baker was 
just brought in who was known to have given false weight. 
The lamp-post was already lowered. Though the man 
was guilty, the National Guard allowed him to escape. 
To the four or five hundred women assembled, these 
guards now presented their bayonets. At the bottom 
of the square stood the cavalry of the guard. The 
women Avere undaunted. They charged upon both 
infantry and cavalry with a shower of stones. The 
soldiers, however, could not make up their minds to fire 
at them. The women, grown bolder, now forced the door 
of the City Hall, and invaded the offices. Most of these 
women, were dressed in white gowns for this grand occa- 
sion, and many were handsomely attired. They demanded 
bread, and some even asked for arms, as they were going 



102 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

to Versailles to bring the King to Paris. At this opi^ortune 
time, bailiff Maillardj who had distinguished himself at the 
Bastile^ appeared among them and was forthwith elected 
their leader. Placing himself at the head of over seven 
thousand women, a few armed men and a company of 
volunteers, the iDrocession moved out of the city. 

As the day advanced, the women became hungry, and 
in passing the small towns between Paris and Versailles, 
it was only through Maillard's earnest protestations that 
they were kept from pillaging the bakers' shops. At Sevres 
they insisted upon having something to eat; a few pitchers 
of wine were found, and eight loaves of bread for 8,000 
famished women. This divided among the most needy 
they march on. 

When about to enter Versailles, Maillard persuaded 
them to place the cannon to the rear of the procession, 
in order to present as peaceable an appearance as possible. 
Upon reaching the Assembly Hall, the women insisted that 
the equal privilege of entering be accorded to all. This 
could not be permitted, and Maillard induced them to 
limit the number to fifteen. Heading this delegation he 
addressed the Representatives at some length, laying be- 
fore them the desperate condition of the people in Paris. 
He, also;, demanded from the Assembly the order request- 
ing an apology from the Body Guards, for the insult 
offered to the JSTational cockade at the banquet, and that 
the president, M. Mounier, accompany a deputation of 
women to lay before the King thfeir complaints, and to 
insist that he sign the decrees of the Assembly and the 
Bill of Rights. In the mean time, the women thronged 
the streets, the rain descending in drenching showers. 

Upon Lafayette's arrival at the City Hall in Paris mat- 
ters began to look serious; it was evident that the people 
wero, determined to be obeyed. In his endeavor to allay 
the excitement, he became himself the object of suspicion. 



GOUNTEB-BEVOLUTIONABT C0N8PIRAGY. 103 

The French Guards having already joined the people, the 
National Guards, his own troops, were now declaring in 
favor of going to Versailles, and demanding to be led by 
him. When Lafayette perceived that all resistance was 
useless, and also, that his refusal might culminate in open 
military revolt, he asked for an order from the Municipal 
Council; the order being granted, at the head of fifteen 
thousand men, the General set out for Versailles. 

So much valuable time had been lost through the inde- 
cision of Lafayette, that the v/omen were entering Ver- 
sailles before he had started from Paris. Although the 
Royal dragoons were riding about and dispersing knots 
of excited people at Versailles, some of whom had been 
wounded, still no hostile demonstration had thus far been 
made by the women. 

The deputation of women accompanied by Mounier 
noAv sought the King, who had just returned from a hunt- 
ing tour at Mendon. Says Michelet: ^'The young girl 
Louison Chabry was charged by the women to speak for 
them; but her emotion was so great in the presence of 
royalty that she could only articulate ^ Bread!' and fell to 
the floor in a swoon. The King, much affected, ordered 
her to be taken care of; but when about to depart, and 
begging to kiss his hand, took her in his arms like a 
father and embraced her." 

Thus Avas her heart, captured, and, upon leaving the 
royal presence, she ran into the street, exclaiming ''Long 
live the King!'' At this, the women waiting for her with- 
out became furious, and declared she had been bribed. 
Although turning her pockets inside out, they were not 
satisfied; tying a garter around her neck, she was promised 
suspension from strangling only upon condition that a 
written order was obtained from the King, removing every 
obstacle to the provisioning of Paris; appealed to, the King 
promised to do all he could to alleviate the suffering of the 



104. THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

people. To the President of the Assembly, however, with 
his usual disregard of its wishes, he coolly requested 
Mounier to return at 9 o^clock p. m. for an answer to his 
request to sign the decrees — time enough for the royal 
family to escape, as the post-chaises were all ready to start 
for Metz. But the Queen would not fly except in com- 
pany with her family. Much precious time had already 
been lost, and a numerous mob of men from the fau- 
bourgs, led by the notorious butcher, Jourdan, known as 
coupe-tete, having arrived at Versailles, all thought of flight 
was now abandoned. This mob was made up of the off- 
scourings of the capital, which, for six months, had been 
the receptacle of every adventurer and cut-throat of 
France. This motley crowd, armed with old muskets, 
sabers, pistols, pikes, sticks and poles, now made the 
streets hideous with their threats of vengeance against 
whoever had insulted the National cockade. 

The women were collected about the chateau of the 
King parleying and chaffing with the Guard. The center 
of attraction, however, was a handsome young girl named 
Madamoiselle Theroigne de Mericourt, who, sitting upon 
a cannon, from Paris to Versailles, had waved the tri-color 
flag at every person or house she passed. 

Writers of royalistic penchant, have called this girl 
dissolute, but impartial criticism does not coincide 
with this view of her character. 'Tis true that in 
the country, she had been abandoned by her lover 
who belonged to the nobility; but it was not through 
any fault of hers. She is described as an eman- 
cipated, interesting, original, and picturesque woman. 
Dressed in riding habit, a tall hat placed jauntily upon 
her pretty head, and sword by her side, she strode 
among the more conservative of the throng, urging 
them to stand by the cause. To her credit is placed the 
prevention of blood-shed on this momentous occasion. 




QEHSOHHE. 



GOUI^'TER-REVOLUTIONART CONSPIBACT. 105 

" IlaruDguingthe Eegiment of Flanders/^ says one writer, 
"she bewildered, gained tliem over, and so completely 
disarmed them, that they gave away their cartridges like 
brothers to the National Guards." 

As reference to this ardent revolutionist will not be 
made again in these pages, the events of lier life may 
be told in a few words. She was educated in a convent at 
Liege. An eloquent speaker, she was in great demand at 
the revolutionary meetings everywhere. In 1790, for 
alleged conspiracy against the Queen she was arrested and 
imprisoned in Tyrol. On her return to Paris after a 
year's imprisonment, being traduced by the journalist 
Suleau, she turned the mob upon him in August, '92, 
Avhich act resulted in his murder. Befriended by Robes- 
pierre, she used her influence in disseminating his views 
until the spring of "92, when, a misunderstanding arising 
between them, the ''Plandsome Liegeoise,'' placarded the 
street of Paris denouncing her former friend; where- 
upon, she was mobbed, the effect of which dethroned her 
reason. She was taken to an asylum a maniac, and died 
there in 1817. 

In the afternoon, notwithstanding the pouring rain at 
Versailles, several encounters took place between the 
Eoyal Guards and the T^ational Guards, four of the former 
being killed and more wounded. 

In barns and sheds the bedraggled and drenched 
women and men from Paris sought shelter for the night. 
Four thousand crowding into the Assembly room, made 
merry with the Deputies. At ten in the evening, the 
President returned to his coadjutors, holding in his hand 
the Bill of Rights, signed by the King, who having been 
warned that further delay in granting these rights might 
prove fatal to his crown, had at last signed the document. 

At midnight, Lafayette and the National Guards 
arrived at Versailles. 



106 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 

Before entering the city, the National Guards were 
asked to renew their oath of fidelity to the laws and the 
King. Uj)on his arrival, the General repaired at once to 
the Assembly, and in addressing the members said: 

''He lamented the disorder and jealousies which had 
compelled him against his judgment, to march at the head 
of the National Guards to Versailles, expressing at the same 
time his hope and belief that an apology from the Guards 
du corps, and the Assembly's adoption of the JSTational 
cockade, would cause forgetf ulness of the past and a good 
understanding in future." 

The weather was cold, and it continued to rain with 
violence. The soldiers took refuge in taverns, coffee 
houses, under porticos, wherever they could find rest and 
shelter. Eefreshments were distributed among them, 
and an appearance of good humor inspired the hope that 
all danger of tumult was over for the night, at least. 

Lafayette, having sent word to the King of his arrival, 
and his desire for an audience, he was informed that " the 
King would be happy to see him, he having just signed his 
' Declaration of Eights.' " 

Lafayette gave such an account of the apparent tran- 
quillity of affairs, that the King and Queen finally retired 
for the night. 

Having made the necessary arrangements, appointed 
different guards and placed sentinels where he deemed it 
necessary, he again entered the National Assembly, giving 
them the same assurances that he had just given the King; 
whereupon, the members dispersed, and at about five in . 
the morning the General himself, after visiting all the 
posts and finding everything perfectly quiet, thought it 
safe to retire to his quarters in order to write to the Munic- 
ipality of Paris, and, if possible, snatch a few hours of 
repose. It must be stated, however, that none of the 
National Guards were allowed within the castle. Not 



COUNTER-REVOLUTION ART CONSPIRACY. 107 

even the outside posts were entirely intrusted to Lafa- 
yette. The park was occupied by the King^s body guards^, 
and Lafayette himself states, that they stayed there until 
two o'clock in the morning, it is now supposed, to aid the 
King had he resolved to fly. 

Maillard, the young girl, Louison Ohabry, and many of 
the women returned to Paris that night, carrying back 
with them the signed decrees for the supply of grain, and 
the Declaration of Rights. 

But the most turbulent spirits remained behind, and 
before daybreak a large crowd of these were gathered 
about the gates of the chateau. The demand was made 
for the King's return to Paris, At six o'clock some of the 
boldest scaled the gates, when one of their number being 
killed, a rush was made to the Queen's apartments; sev- 
eral of the Body-Guards, in attempting to stop the furious 
mob, Avere cut down, and being sorely pressed, retreated 
into an ante-room, barricading the door with the furni- 
ture. In the midst of the shouting, knocking, and ter- 
rible uproar, the cry of ^'Open, Body-Guards! Open I" 
was now heard from without. " Open, we have not 
forgotten the men that saved us at Pontenoy." The 
voice was that of the brave Sergeant Hoche, in command 
of the French Guards, now become a part of the National 
Guards under Lafayette. The door was opened and Na- 
tional Guards and Body-Guards fell into each others' arms, 
embraced and wept. It v/as a moment of intense excite- 
ment for the royal family. Frantic with fear, a petticoat 
covering her nakedness, the Dauphin in her arms, the 
Queen succeeded finally in reaching the King's apart- 
ment. Hearing of the onslaught made upon his Body- 
Guard, the King opened the door at the same moment the 
French Guards entered, saying, "^Do not hurt my 
Guards." The danger, however, was over, and nothing 



lOS THE FOES OF THE FRENCH BEVOLUTION. 

remained to be done but to eject the thieves who had 
begun to pillage the chateau. 

In the court below a frightful spectacle was presented 
to view. The heads of two dead guardsmen were being 
carried about on pikes, while the mob had surrounded 
a number of others, threatening to massacre them. At 
this critical juncture Lafayette appeared on the scene, and 
jirevented further atrocities. The General then entered 
the royal apartments alone, whereupon some one of the 
courtiers cried out, " A Cromwell ! " to which Lafayette, 
turning, replied : " Sir, Cromwell would not have come 
alone." 

The King now showed himself at the balcony, and was 
welcomed with "■ Vive U Boil " 

While Lafayette was endeavoring to quiet the terror- 
stricken family a tremendous shout rent the air. " The 
Queen, the Queen ! " was heard from every side. 

Lafayette, taking in the situation at once, requested 
the Queen ''to show herself to the jpeople." She hesitated. 

" Be not afraid, madam, I shall accompany you," said 
the General. With her two children she hurried to the 
balcony. " The court belov/ was in awful commotion," says 
Michelet; " Like a sea in its fury ; the National Guards, 
lining every side, could not answer for the center; there 
Avere fire-arms, and men blind with rage. Lafayette's 
conduct was admirable; for that trembling woman he 
risked his popularity, his destiny, his very life; he 
appeared with her on the balcony, and kissed her hand." 

The King was filled with alarm during this ordeal, but 
seeing that no harm had come to the Queen, he said to 
Lafayette : '' Cannot something be done for my Guards?" 
They were still being shot at by the mob. One was 
brought forward, who took the oath, placed the National 
cockade in his hat, and kissed it. The shout immediately 
went up, '' Long live the Guards ! Long live the Queen !" 



COUI^TER-REVOLTiTIONART CONSPIRACY. 109 

The demand of tlie people, however, that the King 
come to the capital, could not be resisted ; consequently, 
at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the royal family, in company 
with a hundred deputies, preceded and followed by the 
National Guards and a motley crowd of men and women, 
finally set out for Paris. Arrived late in the afternoon, 
the King was safely installed in the royal palace of the 
Tuileries. The assertion often made that the King 
and Queen were grossly insulted on the way to Paris, that 
the heads of the two slain guardsmen were carried in the 
procession, and flaunted before the eyes of the horrified 
Queen, has been authoritatively denied as the mere fabrica- 
tion of partisan writers, whose imaginations are often 
drawn upon to intensify their pictures. 



CHAPTEK XII. 

CONFISCATION OF CHURCH PROPERTY-THE FAVRAS CONSPIR- 
ACY— MIRABEAU ON BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S DEATH. 

Ten days after the King's departure, the National 
Assembly also removed to Paris, minus, however, a hun- 
dred and fifty members, who, with President Mounier, 
had resigned, many leaving the country. This exodus 
of weaklings and obstructionists served the Assembly to 
such good purpose that from this time forth their work 
on the Constitution wag earnestly pushed forward. The 
removal of the Assembly to Paris had the good effect, also, 
of bringing the members in immediate and daily contact 
with all classes of people, thus establishing a popular cur- 
rent and infusing new life into the proceedings of the 
Assembly ; its political divisions however, now, became 
more pronounced. The more moderate members of the 
Left, such as Barnave, Lameth, and Dupont, soon joined 
the powerful Center, of which Mirabeau and Sieyes were 
the acknowledged leaders, leaving the Theorists and Extre- 
mists, such as Robespierre and Danton — a small but 
aggressive minority — to form what afterwards was known 
as the Montaigne, from the high seats they occupied at the 
extreme left of the hall. 

The clubs where the members met their constituents 
soon became important factors in the growth of the Rev- 
olution. The mother club, or original organization, 
formed in opposition to the old feudal regime at Ver- 
sailles, was now called the ''Jacobin Club." 

Upon the removal of its members to Paris, the club 
was. installed at the old convent of the Jacobins. The 

110 




M*'^- ROLAHD. 



CONFISCATION OF GHURGH PROPERTY. Ill 

name pleased its members, no longer exclusively Bretons, 
and the Jacobin Club soon became a powerful organization, 
not only in Paris but throughout France. As will be seen 
from its early membership, comprising such names as 
Lafayette, Sieyes, Bailly, the Lameths, the Duke of 
Orleans, with his son, Louis Philippe (afterwards king), 
it was not then the rendezvous of fanatical revolutionists 
of a later time. The Girondists, at first constitutional 
monarchists, controlled its proceedings for some time, after 
which it became the battle-ground of factions struggling 
for supremacy in the government. Later on in the pro- 
gress of the Revolution, the Jacobin Club failed to meet 
the requirements of men holding such widely different 
principles and aspirations, and while not severing their 
connection with the mother club, ''the birds of a feather 
naturally flew together," and the Dantons, Camille Des- 
moulins, Marat, and others formed the Club cles Cor- 
deliers. 

In May, 1790, Lafayette, Bailly, Sieyes,' and Talley- 
rand organized the "Club of 89;" a highly reputable 
and conservative gathering, but too much above the com- 
mon people to have much political influence; an organiza- 
tion which in our day would be called the ''Democratic 
Silk Stockings." Thus, while throughout France the 
former inharmonious provinces were confederating through 
popular gatherings, festivities, and musters, Paris confed- 
erated through her clubs. They were the intermedium 
between the people and the Assembly, but subsequently 
were indebted for their power and influence, to the reac- 
tionists, who, by their systematic opposition to the pro- 
gressive spirit which had taken hold of the Assembly and 
people, and their treasonable connection with foreign 
enemies, greally increased the membership and activity of 
the?e clubs. 

While the Ac3cr-ib]v was in the throes of constitution- 



112 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOL UTION. 

making, the dreadful cry for bread was again heard 
through out the streets of Paris. There was no work and 
two hundred thousand beggars from the country had added 
to the wretchedness of the city's poor. There were no 
means of improving the national finances in the ordinary 
way, and yet, the people must not be suffered to starve, as 
long as there were well filled coffers and plenty of grain 
in the land. 

We have seen that the patrimony of the clergy covered 
one-fifth of the arable land of France, estimated at four 
thousand million of francs. Barnave, Dupont de Nem- 
ours, and Alexander de Lameth, proposed and agreed, 
that it was perfectly lawful to appropriate ecclesiastical 
possessions. Hoping to escape total confiscation, the 
Archbishop of Aix proposed to borrow four hundred mil- 
lion francs on security of church lands, but this plan was 
rejected as humiliating to the Nation. On the oOth Mira- 
beau took up the question and held it up in a new light. 
*'The clergy,'' said he, ''are not proprietors but the stew- 
ards of these lands; seamen never appropriate to them- 
selves the vessels which the Nation builds to defend the 
State; never, according to our existing customs, will an 
army divide among its soldiers the territories it has con- 
quered. Shall, then, the clergy alone be permitted to 
say that the possessions acquired by its care of the faithful, 
are to belong to it, and remain indivisible instead of con- 
stituting a portion of the domain of the State? Is it not 
important that a more equal distribution of the riches of 
tlie Church should henceforth be made by those who are 
the stewards of the wealth of the poor ?" 

In a lengthy debate, Mirabeau followed up this view 
of the subject and submitted a formal decree, which de- 
clared that the ecclesiastical revenues were state propert}^ 
provided the State furnished the necessary officers for pub- 
lic worship, and that such officers should receive yearly 



CONFISCATION OF OHXfRCH PROPERTY. 113 

salaries of not less than twelve hundred francs, quite a 
gratuity for the poor preachers who were then receiving 
the pitiful sum of three hundred francs a year, 160. 

On the 2d of ISTovember, after a stormy debate in which 
Abbe Maury, the spokesman of the clericals, became 
violently excited, the decree was adopted by 568 ayes, 
against 346 noes. 

The discussion and final adoption of this measure gave 
rise to violent protests on the part of the clergy, and 
attempts were made in different parts of France to raise 
the standard of rebellion against the Assembly. But the 
peasantry did not take kindly to the suggestion, and the 
more intelligent burghers of the towns threatened the 
bishops of their dioceses with dire vengeance should they 
attempt to nullify the decree of the Assembly. 

On the 3d of November the ancient subdivisions of 
France were abolished by the Assembly, and the country 
reconstructed into eighty-three administrative divisions, 
called Departments. 

Previous to this division France contained thirty-six 
provinces, which, with the exception of Foix and Eous- 
sillion, contained not less than half a million inhabitants 
each, who were more truly French in sentiment, and more 
homogeneous in customs and habits than were the Ameri- 
can Colonies previous to the Eevolution. Many of these 
populations spoke their own ''^patois" it is true, but they 
all spoke and understood the French. 

Ever after the organization of a French standing 
army, the different provinces furnished their respective 
contingents. Under Francis 1. this contingent averaged 
6,000 men from each province, forming a Legion bearing 
the name of its province and officered by its own 
nobility ; or, as has been aptly said, its own ^'prominent 
nobodies." 

These provinces differed from each other, but not so 



11}^ THE FOES OF THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 

much in extent^ as the States of the American Union; 
they, also, differed in rights, immunities and administra- 
tion; so did the thirteen original colonies, but all these 
homogeneous elements notwithstanding, the Union was 
formed, with its National Constitution, its central admin- 
istration, courts, and army and nayy. 

About this time Mirabeau sought an alliance with 
Lafayette (whom he disliked, but who, nevertheless, com- 
pelled his respect), with the intention of inducing him to 
Join in a plan to give France a government after the Eng- 
lish pattern, with Mirabeau as Prime Minister and 
Lafayette its military head. Lafayette favored a Consti- 
tutional Monarchy based upon the American Declaration, 
however, but he was decidedly opposed "to private tm- 
derstmidings in fiiatters of national affairs." The con- 
ference, therefore, came to nothing. Mirabeau was dis- 
appointed and resorted to the boyish practice of calling 
names. To Lafayette he applied the sobriquet, ''Pompous 
Cromwell," doubtless because the General had not taken 
advantage of his popularity to become dictator, at Mira- 
beau's suggestion. 

Mirabeau's ministerial aspirations had not escaped the 
notice of the Assembly, consequently on the 7th of Novem- 
ber it was decreed that no Deputy should hold office. From 
that moment, says an English author, began his long 
series of ''flirtations" with the court, which lasted until 
his death. 

" Flirtations " is a convenient word in the mouth of a 
zealous biographer; it does not, however, explain the fact 
that Mirabeau received princely subsidies from the court, 
which, in our day would be called bribes. 

On the 21st of November the Assembly was informed of 
a second plot to carry the King to Metz, and on the 25th of 
December the Marquis de Favras was arrested, charged 
with being the main instigator of a conspiracy to assas- 



CONFISCATION OF GHURCH PROPEBTT. 115 

sinate Lafayette and Bailly, with a view to overthrowing 
the Assembly and carrying off the King. Monsieur, the 
King's oldest brother, and the Queen herself, were strongly 
suspected of complicity in the plot. The guilt of Favras 
having been fully established, he was sentenced to be 
hung. 

In the hope of saving his own life, he offered to fur- 
nish the names of his co-conspirators ; but the court try- 
ing him, having been tampered with by parties high in 
authority, refused to accept the Marquis' confession as 
the price of his acquittal, and he was executed on the 19th 
of February, taking his secret with him. The circum- 
stance, however, that on the Sunday follov/ing the execu- 
tion the widow of Favras and her son dined with the King 
and the Queen, confirmed in the minds of the people the 
horrible suspicion of the Queen's complicity in the plot. 
Another conspiracy, devised by the Count d'Artois, hav- 
ing the flight of the King in view, was discovered in 
March. 

Thus, the people, who fancied the King to be in full 
accord with the Assembly, and of having accepted the 
new order of things in good faith, were kept in a constant 
state of agitation. Was it to be wondered at that alarm 
and mistrust took the place of confidence, that the Tuileries 
began henceforth to be watched by an anxious multitude, 
to see whether the King, their chief commissary, was still 
there, or whether he had flown. This condition of gen- 
eral uneasiness and mistrust increased to a state of morbid- 
ness. Faith in public men had received a shock. '^Mira- 
beau had betrayed them, and Lafayette had transformed 
the National volunteer-soldiery into a Praitorian guard." 

The year for which the Assembly had been chosen was 
drawing to a close, and the question now arose, shall the 
Assembly, at the expiration of its term, dissolve? The 
royalists, hoping for the opportunities an interregnum 



im THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

might offer to carry their schemes into effect, their best 
orators and debaters were pushed to the front to insist 
upon dissolution. Gazales, their principal spea^ker, 
asked the Assembly whether it considered itself the 
National Convention? This startled Mirabeau, and the 
crushing answer he gave him stands forth as one of the 
most brilliant efforts of parliamentary oratory. 

"You ask," said he, ''\\ow, being deputies of baili- 
wicks, we have made ourselves a convention? I will 
answer: The day when, finding the door of our assembly- 
room shut, bristling and defiled with bayonets, we has- 
tened to the first place that could be found to hold us, 
and there, swore to perish rather than surrender our 
rights, on that day, if we were not a convention, we 
became one! Let them now go and hunt from the useless 
nomenclature of civilians, the definition of the words 
National ConveMtion! Gentlemen, you all know the con- 
duct of the Koman who, to save his country from a great 
conspiracy, was obliged to overstep the powers conferred 
upon him by the laws. A captious tribune required from 
him the oath that he now respected them. He thought by 
that insidious proposal to leave the consul no alternative 
but perjury, or an embarrassing avowal. ' I swear,' said 
the great man, 'that I have saved the Republic ! ' Gen- 
tlemen, I swear also, that you have saved the Nation ! " 
Mirabeau's eloquent reminder of the oath of the Assembly 
at the Tennis Court, ''never to dissolve until a constitution 
was formed," made such an impression that a decree em- 
bodying these very sentiments was adopted at once. The 
court, which had relied on Mirabeau's support, was check- 
mated once more. The intrigues of the Queen with her 
brother. Emperor Leopold of Austria, in the affairs of 
Belgium, had culminated in serious complications with 
England, and war was expected. The King having noti- 
fied the Assembly that he was arming a fleet, the question 




BRISSOT. 



CONFISCATION OF CHURCH PROPERTY 117 

arose, ''Shall tlie power to declare war remain with the 
King?" The debates over this subject grew exceedingly 
acrimonious, and the clubs having taken part in the dis- 
cussion, all Paris was soon found upon the one side or the 
other. Mirabeau's course in defense of this royal prerog- 
ative, was severely criticised, and his secret alliance with 
the court, as well as the amount he was receiving from 
the royal exchequer, soon became the gossip of the town. 
In consequence of these rumors Mirabeau was violently 
assailed on his way to the Assembly. He saw his danger, 
and by a masterly retreat and a brilliant oratorical effort, 
in which he alluded to a supposed king, who, having be- 
trayed his people by leaving his country, returned with an 
army of Frenchmen to repossess himself of the citadel of 
tyranny. With this reference to possible emergencies, he 
succeeded in drawing the fire of the royalists upon him- 
self, and thus removed the suspicion that he was their 
secret ally. 

From the King's absolute prerogative of making 
war, which Mirabeau had at first advocated, he retreated 
to the less objectionable position of allowing him the right 
to prepare for ivar and direct the forces; also that the 
King inform the Assembly, when, in his opinion, war 
should be declared, but the final action of the Assembly 
must receive the sanction of the King. 

The Assembly gave these modified views of Mirabeau 
the form of a decree. His genius had thus secured a 
triumph, but the man never recovered the prestige which 
this hostile demonstration of the people had cost him. 

To recompense him, perhaps, the Queen soon after 
accorded him an interview. 

In a secluded spot at St. Cloud they met. Mirabeau 
was diplomatic, and Marie Antoinette reserved. At the 
close of the conference the anxious Queen allowed her 
champion to kiss her hand, at which Mirabeau is said to 



lis THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

have exclaimed enthusiastically and authoritatively: 
'' Madam, the Monarchy is saved ! " Who can answer for 
a Frenchman's politics in the presence of a charming 
woman! This interview took place in the latter part of 
May, 1790. 

On the 11th of June neAvs reached Paris that the 
American patriot, Benjamin Franklin, had died at Boston, 
on the 17th of the preceding April. Mirabeau, who had 
been one of his admirers, appeared in the tribune of the 
Assembly, and pronounced, to a silent and sympathetic 
audience, the following elegant eulogium : 

" Franklin is dead ! Eeturned to the bosom of Divinity 
is the genius which freed America and rayed forth upon 
Europe floods of light. 

'^A sage, whom two worlds alike claim! A man, for 
Avhose genius the history of science and the history of 
empires will contend ! A man, who had a most elevated 
rank in the human race. 

*^ Long enough have political cabinets notified the world 
of the death of those who were only great in their funeral 
orations! Long enough has court etiquette proclaimed 
these hypocritical mournings ! Nations should only wear 
mourning for their benefactors. The representatives of 
Nations ought only to pay homage to the heroes of 
humanity. 

^'Congress has proclaimed that in the thirteen States of 
the Confederation two months of mourning shall be obser- 
ved for Benjamin Franklin. At this very moment Amer- 
ica is paying this tribute of veneration to one of the 
fathers of her Constitution. 

^'Would it not be in keeping with us, gentlemen, to join 
them in this religious act; to participate in their homage 
offered to the defender of the rights of man, and to the 
philosopher ? Antiquity would have been satisfied only 
in raising altars and monuments to his vast and powerful 



CONFISCATION OF CHURCH PROPERTY. 119 

.'];onius ; a man whose aspirations for the elevation of 
mortals, sought and obtained that knowledge which tamed 
tyrants and took away their thunder-bolts, France, enlight- 
ened and free, owes an expression of remembrance and 
regret to the memory of one of the greatest men that ever 
advanced philosophy and aided liberty, I, therefore, pro- 
pose it be decreed, that the National Assembly wear mourn- 
ing for three days in honor of Benjamin Franklin!" 

The decree was passed unanimously and not only did 
the Assembly honor the memory of the great American 
and friend of French liberty, but the people were still 
more demonstrative in their declarations of respect. 

By way of contrast, not a hundred years after, the 
American Senate is found refusing to render a similar act 
of homage to the memory of a man who was quite as 
conspicuous in his friendship and efforts to preserve 
American liberty, to-wit, John Bright, the English econ- 
omist and philanthropist. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE FESTIVAL OF CONFEDERATION. 

On the 19th of June, 1790, the Assembly had advanced 
to a state when the time appeared ripe for a decided step 
forward. The decree abolishing all titles^ prohibiting the 
use of heraldic insignia, blazoning of arms, liveries and 
all other medieval paraphernalia denoting superior rank had 
passed. 

The time for celebrating the first anniversary of the 
taking of the Bastile was drawing near, and for the 
moment^ the public mind seemed diverted from the pro- 
ceedings of the Assembly. A reverential sentiment ap- 
peared to have taken possession of the hearts of the people. 

The Municipality of Paris having received numberless 
appeals from all parts of the country to arrange for a gen- 
eral confederation of the French people, the National 
Assembly was prevailed upon to issue a decree inviting all 
Frenchmen to come and fraternize at a fete, as the peo- 
ple, the National Guards, and the regular troops of Paris 
had fraternized for the destruction of despotism on the 
14th of July, 1789. 

The inhabitants throughout France having broken 
down all barriers of caste were now united. The burghers 
of cities and the rural people uniting for common defense, 
at a time when the sudden overthrow of ancient orders- 
threatened the country with anarchy, by this act had 
strengthened the bond of interest between them. Every 
citizen was armed. Commanders were chosen by the Com- 
munes, and methods similar to those employed by the 

120 



THE FESTIVAL OF CONFEDEBATION. 121 

American frontiersmen for security against lawless marau- 
ders were adopted. 

They, also, had had frequent fraternizing festivities, 
the inhabitants of one city meeting with those of an- 
other, and those of one province with those of another, 
the citizens of which had been almost foreigners before. 
These touching reunions consisted not only of men, but 
the young girls, children, and mothers formed the most 
interesting part of these gatherings. 

"Everywhere an old man was put at the head of the 
people," says Michelet, '^sitting in the first place, and 
presiding over the crowd. Encircling him, like a garland 
of flowers were the girls of France. In all these solem- 
nities, this lovely band dressed in white with tri-colored 
sashes remained at his side. The Dauphine, that serious 
and valiant province which had opened the Eevolution, 
made numerous confederations within the whole province. 
The rural communes, nearest to Savoy, and close to the 
emigrants, tilling the ground, with their guns near at 
hand, had still better festivals; a battalion of children, 
another of women, another of maidens, all armed, had 
been formed here. 

'* Women are kept back from public life, and people are 
apt to forget that they have really more right to it than any. 
The stake they venture is very different from ours; 
man plays only his life; but woman stakes her children. 
She is far more interested in acquiring information and 
cultivating foresight. In the solitary, sedentary life 
which most women lead, they follow, in their anxious 
musings, the critical events of their country, and the 
movements of their armies. The mind of this woman, 
whom you believe to be entirely absorbed with her house- 
hold duties, is wandering in the field, sharing all the pri- 
vations and marches of the young soldier, suffering and 
fighting with him, Whether invited or not, they took the 



122 TEE FOES OF THE FREKCII REVOLUTION. 

most active part in the fetes of the confederations, as tlie 
American women had done a few years before. In some 
village or other on the day the delegates were to be chosen, 
the men assembled in a large building, to formu- 
late a common address to the National Assembly. The 
women soon drew near to listen; then to enter, and, with 
tears in their eyes, to entreat to be allowed to join them; 
the address being read, they agree to it heartily. This 
affecting union of the family in the affairs of the country 
filled every heart with an unknown sentiment." 

The call of the Assembly for a National confederation 
was thus cheerfully responded to. Streams of deputations 
from the remotest parts of France were soon wending their 
way toward Paris, singing: 

" Le peuple en ce jour sans cesse rSplte — 
Ah! 9aira! 9a ira! ^aira!" 

and receiving the generous hospitality of the people as they 
journeyed on. 

As the great day drew near Paris became wild with en- 
thusiasm. The joyous city put on her best attire to 
receive her guests from the country. Preparations of 
unusual magnitude were in progress at the Champ de 
Mars, that the festival be as grand and imposing as possi- 
ble. Twelve thousand laborers were set to work to con- 
struct elevations, seats, and shelter, for the reception of 
400,000 people. In the center of the extensive grounds a 
high mound was thrown up, upon this was erected an altar 
of antique construction, approached by many steps, sur- 
rounded by an amphitheater for the accommodation of 
the King, the National Assembly and the Municipality of 
Paris. The workingmen seemed not to progress satisfac- 
torily, and fearing the preparations might not be perfected 
in time, the people of all classes and of both sexes, 
streamed to the Champ de Mars to render the necessary 




YERGHIAUD. 



TEE FESTIVAL OF CONFEDERATION: 123 

assistance. The immense work, which converted a plain 
into a valley between two hills, was performed in precisely 
seven days. The thousands upon thousands of visitors 
who were pouring into the city received a hearty welcome. 
The city was overflowing. The delegates were hospit- 
ably cared for by the citizens. '' When the Bretons," says 
Michelet, "those eldest born of liberty, arrived, the con- 
querors of the Bastile advanced as far as Versailles to meet 
them, and, after mutual congratulations and embraces, the 
two bodies united, and, forming one, marched back to 
Paris. Every heart expanded with the unknown sentiment 
of peace and concord; the journalists ceased wrangling, the 
Assembly, composed of warring factions, itself seemed 
gained over by the universal enthusiasm.'' It was to be a 
celebration vying with the American celebrations of July 

4th, 17,76. 

The day arrived at last. The heart of longing France 
beat high. The National Guards and many of the people 
had encamped near the grounds the night before in order 
to be ready to do the honors of the day with freshness and 
fervor. As the morning advanced rain began to fall. 
" The weather is aristocratic,'' shouted the people as they 
poured out of the houses, inns and halls of the city to 
witness the grand procession. 

Starting from Bastile square under the roar of artillery, 
the great concourse watched the forming of the line, rend- 
ing the air with loud cheers. A battalion of children was 
placed at the head and a battalion of veterans closed up the 
rear of the procession. Reaching the Tuileries the Court 
and National Assembly were placed in the center. Flags 
were flying, bands were playing and the people thronged 
the streets shouting. 

Upon reaching the grounds the sight was grand to 
behold. Three hundred and sixty thousand people had 
gathered there to fraternize, to ratify the decrees of the 



m THE FOES OF THE FRENCH HE VOL UTION. 

Assembly lookiug toward the freedom of France. The 
dignitaries ascending the steps to the altar, the proceed- 
ings of the day were .opened by Abbe Talleyrand, (very 
ominous,) who read mass and blessed the flags of the eighty- 
three departments. Then came General Lafayette, who 
had been nominated Chief Marshal of the day, and ap- 
pointed by the Assembly, General-in-Chief of the National 
Guards of France, and standing upon the altar in the name 
of his troops, swore fidelity to the iSTation, to the laws and 
the King, after which he tur^ied to the people, and read- 
ing the formula, four hundred thousand people repeated 
in concert, "I swear it!" 

The artillery thundered forth a grand salute ; the Kiug 
now arose, and in the hush of an impressive silence swore 
fidelity to the Nation, and to loyally respect and maintain 
the National constitution. The Queen, raising her child, 
exclaimed : " Here is my son ; we both are in sympathy 
with the sentiments of the people.-'^ This trusting peo- 
ple, belieying their generous impulses were reciprocated, 
had faith in these solemn protestations of their Majesties, 
and tremendous shouts of, ''Vive le Eoi!" "^A^ive la 
Eeine P' ^'Vive la Nation!" went up in testimony of 
that faith. They not only trusted the King and the 
Queen— they earnestly hoped aud fervently believed this 
great federation of hearts to be the final settlement, the 
closing scene in which many privileges had been gained 
and from which much happiness would come to the people. 
As the evening hours of that memorable day closed in, 
hundreds of thousands of new-born Frenchm.en walked 
the streets, embraced, hurrahed, and sung, "^a ira ! " (It 
goes). 

On their homeward journey, day and night were but 
one continued scene of joyful exuberance. 

At every village, in every city, they were received with 
acclamations of joy, and the best that cupboard and eel- 



THE FESTIVAL OF CONFEDERATION. 126 

lar aUorded was set before them. They enjoyed them- 
selves as only Frenchmen can enjoy themselves, and not 
with icy, speculating soberness, and the grave, Sabbatarian 
mien of Englishmen. Says Carlyle of this great frater- 
nizing celebration : 

"Never, or hardly ever, was oath sworn with such 
heart effusion, emphasis, and expenditure of joyance ; 
and then it was broken irremediably within a year and 
day, but why ? When the swearing of it was so heavenly 
joyful, bosom clasped to bosom, and five and twenty mil- 
lion hearts all burning together — 0, ye inexorable desti- 
nies, why ? Partly, it was sworn with such over- joyance ; 
but chiefly, indeed, for another reason : That sin had 
come into the world, and misery by sin ! These five and 
twenty millions, if we will consider it, have now hence- 
forth, with that Phrygian cap of theirs, no force over 
them, to bind and guide/' 

In this instance the great author is mistaken. These 
twenty-five million souls were not the helpless, unstable, 
and frivolous beings, who, if left to themselves, would 
dance toward perdition. For the year past, and when 
red-handed anarchy, and roving bands of malefactors, 
threatened life and property, they went to Vv'ork and 
organized their Communes, and Justice Courts, and 
armed posses for mutual protection ; they had governed 
themselves without any force save their own free wills and 
stout hearts, and with no one to guide them but their 
honest convictions ; or, as Mr. Carlyle rightly puts it : 
" Authorities are not idle; though, unluckily, all author- 
ities, municipalities, and such like, were then in an uncer- 
tain, transitory state ; getting regenerated from old mon- 
arcMc to nevj democratic. Nevertheless, Mayors, old or 
new, do gather guardsmen. National guards, troops of the 
line, and justice of the most summary sort is not want- 
ing." 



ISG THE FOES OF TEE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

There was no more danger of French authorities and 
municipalities, in regenerating from old monarchy to new 
democracy, moving backward, than there had been for 
American municipalities, in their transitory state, to fall 
into anarchy. The French people were fully competent 
to take care of themselves ; they intended loyally and 
conscientiously to keep and stand firm by the new politi- 
cal covenant their delegates had sworn to at the great 
Fraternization ; but royalty, as if ordained by inexorable 
destiny, was to break its oath. 

The French people saw no inducement to break it; their 
own welfare requiredit should be sacredly kept. Absolut- 
ism had been dethroned; the feudal system, hereditary 
titles, prerogatives of every description, and all political 
inequality between all classes had been abolished; the 
supreme power of legislation was now placed in their 
hands; what possible incentive could these Frenchmen 
have for breaking their oath ? Absolutely none. No; the 
people were satisfied with what they had gained, and all 
they asked for was to henceforth peacefully enjoy the 
fruits of their own labor. 

Michelet, probably the keenest dissector of the impulses 
and motives of his countrymen, of all the historians of the 
Eevolution, gives the following pathetic description of 
popular sentiment in France, during this trying epoch : 

^^ Candor and credulity," says he, ^'was the character 
of the first revolutionary age, an age which has passed 
never to return. An affecting history, which no one can 
read without shedding tears. So childish, so easy to be 
deceived! and duped to such a degree! no matter; true 
Frenchmen will never repent of having been the confiding 
and merciful people they were proven to be. 

The disturbances inseparable from so great an over- 
throw, have been purposely magnified, and complai- 
santly exaggerated from the impassioned accounts v/hich 



TEE FESTIVAL OF CONFEDERATION. 1£7 

our enemies received and solicited from all who had suf- 
fered. 

In reality, only one class, the clergy, was able with any 
appearance of truth to call itself robbed. And neverthe- 
less, the result of that spoliation was, that the great bulk 
of the clergy, starved under the old system for the emolu- 
ment of a few prelates, had, at length, a comfortable 
livelihood. 

The nobles lost their feudal rights, but in many prov- 
inces, especially in Laguedoc, they gained much more as 
proprietors, in no longer being obliged to pay tithes, than 
they lost as lords of the manor with feudal rights. 

Though divested of the Gothic and ridiculous honors 
of fiefs — now become an absurdity — they had not fallen in 
the social scale. The true honor of citizenship (of which 
the majority were hardly worthy) — the highest places in 
the municipalities, and rank in the National Guard — was 
bestowed upon them with blind deference, in most every 
province. 

This was excessive, imprudent confidence. But the 
new generation, throughout the infinite prospect which 
the future afforded, haggled but little with the past. It 
asked the other only to let it go and live. Immense was 
their faith, their hope. All these millions of men, serfs 
only yesterday, and now men and citizens, summoned in 
the self -same day, all at once, from death to life, these 
new-born infants of the Eevolution were arising with an 
unheard-of abundance of strength, good will, and confi- 
dence! 

What hope, what love in that happy year ! During 
the confederation period, marriage — that most natural con- 
federation — went on multiplying. It is an extraordinary 
fact that marriages were one-fifth more numerous during 
that glorious year of hope. 

Ah! that great movement of hearts promised some- 



123 TEE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

thing more — a far different fecundity. Fruitful in men 
and laws, that moral union of the soul and the will led 
the people to expect a new dogma, new and powerful ideas, 
both social and religious. At the mere sight of the field 
of the Confederation, everybody would have sworn that, 
from that sublime moment, from so many pure and sin- 
cere desires, from such an effusion of tears, and from the 
concentrated ardor of so many fervent prayers, a God 
was about to rise. 

All saw and felt the divine sentiment. Even the men 
the least favorably disposed toward the revolution started 
at that moment, and perceived a glorious advent approach- 
ing. Our wild peasants of Maine and the marshes of 
Brittany, whom through furious fanaticism were about to 
turn against us, came of their own accord full of emotion 
to join our confederation and to kiss the altar of the un- 
known God. 

Such was the infinite spirit brooding over this people, 
when, at noon on the 14th of July, they raised their hands 
to heaven. On that day everything was jjossible. Every 
kind of discussion had ceased; there was no longer either 
nobility or serf; there were but citizens; a people. 

There was nothing one would think of to prevent the 
social and religious change of the Eevolution from being 
realized. 

Magnanimous instincts had burst forth in every class 
which simplified everything. Difficulties indissoluble 
before and afterward, were then resolved of themselves. 
In October, 1789, there was reason to fear the bulk of the 
rural electors might serve the aristocracy, but this fear 
had disappeared in July, 1790; for the peasant then obeyed, 
in almost every locality, the impulse of the Eevolution, 
with as much zeal as did the town populations. 




BARBAROUX. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY CONSPIRACIES . 

"Oh hostile fatality," exclaims Michelet, "^^ which 
checked the delivery of France. Whom must we accuse? 
Who are to be charged with the crime of this miscar- 
riage?" With a frown he turns toward England and 
from thence to the French clergy. Partially, yes, both 
are responsible; but too much confidence in the King and 
not enough in the common people were the principal 
causes of the future mischief. Tv^^o parties swore at the 
great feast of Liberty to stand by Fraternity and Equal- 
ity; but one only really intended to keep its oath. There 
is amj^le proof at hand to convict one of the principals to 
the contract with its willful violation . 

It is known that the very night before the celebration. 
Bonne de Savarin, the secret agent of the court and 
author of the plot to introduce a portion of the army of 
the emigrants into the city of Lyons, and whose confessions 
might prove fatal to the royalists, was spirited away from 
the abbey, where he had been imprisoned, to be tried for 
his life. Again, it is no secret that immediately after the 
14th of July, plans were devised by some of the royal Dep- 
uties to rob the people of the fruits of their peaceable vic- 
tory. As early as the 18th it was decreed by the National 
Assembly that the National Guard, at first made up of all 
good citizens, should be uniformed; the simple tri-colored 
riband which designated the service not being considered 
sufficiently pretentious. This order, as it was expected, 
had the effect of disarming the poor, since the designated 
uniform was too expensive a luxury to be indulged in by 

129 



130 TEE FOES OF TEE FRENCE REVOLUTION. 

this class. This measure was as injudicious at the time as 
it was unpopular, because it furnished the revolutionary 
clubs, notably the Jacobins, with the most plausible argu- 
ments for thorough organization of the poorer classes all 
over the country. In less than two years two thousand 
four hundred of these clubs, in as many towns and villages, 
become connected with the original club at Paris. 
Another cause of popular alarm was the circumstance, 
that while the Assembly divested royalty of many of its 
prerogatives, the sword was still left in the hands of the 
King. He, as before, could prepare for war and direct the 
National forces. This he proposed to continue to do. As 
early as January, 1790, the minister of war had written 
the commandants of the fortresse of Lille, in Flanders, 
'*■ Just forget us and consider us as nothing, and soon we 
shall be everything.'^ 

" Dimly visible at Metz,'' says Carlyle, ^^on the north- 
eastern frontier, last refuge of royalty m all straits and 
meditations of fliglit, a certain brave Bouille had for 
some months hovered: his position and procedure there 
will soon throw light on many things. The Marquis de 
Bouille, one of the four appointed superior generals, was a 
determined loyalist, who had refused to take the National 
oath. There, at his post he silently waits, with no clear 
purpose in his mind but this — to still try to do his 
majesty a service.''^ 

Bouille himself admits, in his memoirs, that he left 
^^ nothing untried to set the soldiery and the people in 
opposition to each other and to inspire the military with 
hatred and contempt for the citizen." 

Says Carlyle, ^'Bouille always struggled and hoped 
for the best; not from new organizations, but by liai^py 
counter Revolutions, to finally be able to return to the old 
order of things. It was clear to him that this National 
Federation, with its universal swearing, and the f raterniz- 



00 UNTER RE VOL VTIONAR T COKSPIRA CIES. 131 

ing of the people and soldiers, had done incalculable mis- 
chief." 

And what was the attitude of the Court, two short 
months after the King and Queen had taken the oath to be 
loyal to the people of France, to support and respect their 
new constitution? 

M. de Breteuil, the Prime Minister, who in July 
1789, urged upon the Assembly such desperate measures to 
repress the Paris insurrection, left France early in 1790, 
as the King's secret embassador to all the courts of Eu- 
rope. His secret authority was not revoked after the 
King had taken the oath to support the new Constitution, 
but, rather received renewed force, from the fact that the 
King's private communications to the foreign powers 
were transmitted through him. One month after the Con- 
federation celebration, the King addressed a protest to the 
diiferent powers, concerning the action of the National 
Assembly in requiring the oath of loyalty from the clergy; 
and on the 6th of October, he sent a private letter to the 
King of Prussia, urging the combined action of all the 
powers for the restoration of his former rule in France. 
The following letter, found in the archives of the Chan- 
cellorship of Prussia, dated December 3, 1790, substantiates 
this fact. 

^'My Dear Brother: I have learned from M. de 
Moustier, how great an interest Your Majesty has dis- 
played, not only for the safety of my person, but for the 
welfare of my Kingdom, and Your Majesty's determina- 
tion to prove this interest, whenever it can be for the good 
of my people, has deeply touched me; I therefore confi- 
dently claim the fulfillment of it, at this moment, when, 
in spite of my having accepted the new Constitution, the 
factious portion of my subjects openly manifest their in- 
tention of destroying the remainder of the monarchy. I 
have thus addressed the Emperor, the Empress of Russia, 



132 THE FOES OE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

and the Kings of Spain and Sweden; and I have suggested 
to them the idea of a congress of the principal powers of 
Europe, supported by an armed force, as the best meas- 
ure to check the progress of faction here; to afford 
the means of establishing a better order of things, and 
preventing the evil that is devouring this country from 
seizing on the other States of Europe. I trust that Your 
Majesty will approve my ideas, and maintain the strictest 
secrecy respecting the step I have taken in this matter, as 
you will feel that the critical position in which I am 
placed, at present, compels me to use the greatest circum- 
spection. It is for this reason that the Baron de Bretenil 
has alone been made acquainted with my secret, and 
through him Your Majesty can transmit me whatever you 
may think fit." 

Michelet, whose statements are based upon official doc- 
uments, says, '^ As early as October, 1790, the Austrian 
embassador, Mercy, minister Breteuil and the Queen^s 
advisers, insisted upon the flight of the royal family. Bre- 
tenil sent a bishop from Switzerland transmitting his 
plan to the King. But neither the Queen nor the bishop 
considered it prudent to be the first to unfold it to his 
majesty. In order not to alarm him, they merely inti- 
mated the expediency, in case of danger, of taking refuge 
with General Bouille's faithful regiments stationed close 
to the Austrian frontier and within reach of succor from 
Leopold, the King's brother-in-law. The King listened, 
but remained silent. The Queen now tried her influence, 
and by dint of prayers and entreaties at length obtained, 
Oct. 30th, 1790, a general 2^oiver to treat loitli foreign 
poiuers. Bouille, receiving notice of this, advised the 
King to repair,. preferably, to Besan9on, within reach of 
aid from the Swiss, secured by capitulations. But this 
Avas not to the taste of the Austrian advisers, who insisted 
on Montmedy, only two leagues from the Austrian fron- 



CO UNTER-RE VOL UTIONAR T C0N8PIRA CIES. 133 

tier. In order to come to a definite understanding. Gen- 
eral de Bouille sent in December Louis de Bouille, one of 
his sons, who, conducted by the bishop, the original mes- 
senger in this affair, held an interview with Fersen, an inti- 
mate friend of the Queen, in a very retired house of the Fau- 
bourg Saint-Honore. Bouille was very young, being only 
twenty-one years of age. Fersen was exceedingly devoted, 
but absurd and careless, it would seem. Nevertheless, 
these were the two persons who held in their hands and 
directed the destiny of the monarchy. M. de Bouille, 
being well acquainted with the court, and knowing that they 
were quite capable of disowning him if the business went 
wrong, had requested the King to write a letter containing 
every particular, and giving him full authority; which letter 
was to be shown to his son, who was to take a copy of it. 
This proceeding was serious and dangerous. The King, 
however, wrote and signed these terrible words which two 
years later were to lead him to the scaffold: ''You must 
secure, before everything else, assistance from alroad!" 

" The correspondence between the Queen and the for- 
eign powers, ^^ says Mme. Campan, the Queen's lady-in-wait- 
ing and confidante, ''was carried on in cipher. That to 
which she gave preference can never be divulged, but the 
greatest patience is requisite for its use. Each corre- 
spondent must have a copy of the same edition of some 
work. The Queen selected Paul and Tirginia. The page 
and line in which the letters required, and occasionally 
a monosyllable, are to be found are pointed out in the 
cipher agreed upon. I assisted her in the operation of 
finding the letters, and very frequently I made an ex- 
act copy for her of all that she had ciphered, without 
knowing a single word of its meaning.'"' 

It must be borne in mind that before and during this 
conspiracy* the wheels of industry and commerce had 
come to a standstill. 



13k THE FOES OF THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 

The forcible transfer of the royal family from Ver- 
sailles to Paris, the bread riots at the capital, and excesses 
committed by the peasants in the provinces, had not only 
hastened the exodus of the nobles, but many of the wealthy, 
and others in easy circumstances, who, though at first 
having actively engaged in the events of the first epoch of 
the Eevolution, now became alarmed, and in throngs of 
thousands crossed the frontier into safer lands. Those 
that did remain neither ''spun nor wove," but turned 
whatever of their possessions they were able into ready cash, 
thus withdrawing the available capital of the country from 
circulation. As always happens in cases of popular com- 
motions, the industrial class, which had been foremost in 
the contest against ancient abuses, were the principal suf- 
ferers of this crisis. During the v/inter of ^89 and '90, 
thousands of workmen were without employment, and the 
influx of idle labor from the country steadily continuing, 
the evil had increased to an alarming extent. This unfortu- 
nate condition of things was aggravated by the difficulty 
of supplying Paris with i^rovisions, owing to the disturb- 
ances in the provinces. The credulous people of Paris had 
been sadly disappointed in the hope that with the return 
of the royal family to Paris their troubles would be removed. 
It is almost incredible, but is a fact, that voracious specu- 
lations improved this scarcity of breadstuffs, to ''boom'' 
the price of grain. Bread-riots and lynch law were the 
consequences. During this period a number of wheat 
gamblers fell victims to the popular fury, Avhereupon, on 
the 21st of October, martial law was decreed by the 
National Assembly. The municipality was empowered to 
disperse popular assemblages by force of arms, a power 
which was executed by the National Guards (now com- 
posed almost exclusively of the bourgeois class) with 
undue severity and often with wanton brutality. It 
became, from day to day, evident that the bourgeoisie. 




PETIOH. 



CO UNTEB-BEVOL UTIONAB 7 CONSPIBA CIES. 135 

who thus far had reaped all the benefits of the Revolution, 
did not possess the ability to grapple with this critical 
situation, nor did they seem inclined to allow the indus- 
trial classes a share in these benefits. Instead of devising 
a comprehensive economic system, by which labor might be 
rewarded, the bourgeoisie preferred to employ that of the 
old regime, namely, ^'^powder and lead." It logically fol- 
lowed that the co-partnership heretofore existing between 
the bourgeoisie and the working classes was dissolved 
by mutual consent; that from being friends in the revolu- 
tionary movement they became bitter opponents, both 
struggling for actual existence in the state, and then for 
political supremacy, until the one was precipitated into the 
gulf which its own shortsightedness and selfishness had 
created. Instead of providing Paris with bread, the munic- 
ipality ordered the old state dungeons at Versailles to be 
reconstructed for the imprisonment of obnoxious agitators, 
and every demonstration against the inauguration of a 
nftw Bastile was dispersed by the cavalry of the National 
Guard. 

Now the streets and public places of Paris were daily 
filled with idle workmen, who could not, as was done sub- 
sequently, be employed in the army, and work was only to 
be had in those trades which were engaged in providing 
the National Guards with uniforms, arms and accoutre- 
ments. Petitions for work were responded to by the 
municipality with threats of arrest, and on the 14th 
of June, 1791, the trades' unions, for the offense of fixing 
wages and hours of labor, were declared — these efforts of 
the unions to better themselves being seditious — prohib- 
ited by law. These repressive measures were welcome 
food for the arch demagogue Marat, who, vulture-like, 
fed upon wrongs inflicted upon the laborer and his acts of 
retaliation. 



CHAPTER XV. 



MARAT. 



It is, perhaps, a truism to say, that popular commo- 
tions are generally the result of scarcity of work and 
bread, and that, consequently, political and social reforms 
are mainly secured through the stomachs of the people. 
We have seen that, for more than a century previous to 
the outbreak of the Revolution, France was suffering from 
the evil effects of a vicious system of political economy, 
introduced under Louis XIV. and maintained with only 
partial interruptions during the reigns of his successors, 
and that it contributed in no small degree in precipitating 
this crisis. In the city of Paris these evils were necessa- 
rily aggravated by the closing of almost all her manufac- 
turing establishments, and the efforts of the National As- 
sembly for the provisioning of this populous center was 
never more than partially successful. Work and bread, 
was, therefore, the daily cry of Paris; it was the ^'burning 
question;" the main topic of public writers and speakers; 
a source of anxiety to the friends of a peaceful Revolution, 
and a standing menace in the hands of the demagogues. 

Next to the popular clubs, the public press at this time 
had become the most important factor of the Revolution. 
While such journals as the Revolutions de Paris and the 
Patriot FranQais were conducted in harmony with the 
revolutionary sentiment of the great body of the French 
people, devising and discussing plans for the relief of the 
needy and for the erection of the new social and political 
edifice, L'Ami clu Peiqoh, edited by Marat, and other sheets 
confined to the faubourgs, appealed to the passions and 

136 



MARAT. 137 

jirejudices of the idle v/orkingmen, and incited the brutal- 
ity and cupidity of the lawless rabble, congregated at the 
capital, to riots and insurrections. 

Editor Marat could not have lived except by agitation 
and social disarrangement — contention was his element. 
The famine of the winter between 1789-90 afforded to his 
base propensities an endless field of operation. His paper 
fed on hunger and starvation. 

Marat was unquestionably the most lugubrious figure 
of the French Eevolution. 

From the moment this monster prominently appears 
on the scene, the "Eeign of Terror" may be said to have 
begun. 

Attempts have been made by a certain class of writers 
to shield this man from the execration of posterity, but 
Avithout avail, for the columns of his own paper, written 
by his own hand, convict him of complicity in wholesale 
murders. 

Marat, or rather Mara, was born at Baudry, near 
Neufchatel, Switzerland. His father was an Italian and 
his mother a French Genevese, so that, although born in 
Switzerland, he had not a drop of Helvetian blood in his 
veins. By occupation his father was a clergyman of a lib- 
eral education, and his mother a sensitive woman, much 
given to reading and reflection; both were ardent admirers 
of the great Jean Jacques Eousseau, who had retired to 
Neufchatel, when Mara;t was at the age of twenty. 

The brilliant achievements of Eousseau in the field of 
philosophical literature, impressed young Marat with the 
idea that he also might become a great author, a senti- 
ment which was hourly fostered by his ambitious parents. 
Eousseau's writings henceforth formed the principal 
study of the youth. But, as his literary labors subsequently 
proved, Marat^s mind was imitative rather than creative; 
he possessed Eousseau's indefatigable industry but not a 



ISS THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

scintilla of his genius, and that sentiment of pride which 
distinguished this great author was mere vanity in Marat. 
His supreme egotism is thus aptly illustrated when, 
in 1793, he wrote of himself in his newspaper. The Friend 
of the People: * 'At five years of age, I wanted to be 
a schoolmaster; at fifteen, a professor; at eighteen, an 
author, and a creative genius at twenty; now I think I 
have exhausted every combination of the human mind, 
on morality, philosophy, and politics/' 

Marat started out in his work at the age of twenty, as 
a teacher of French at Edinburgh, giving himself the 
title of Doctor of Medicine. In 1774, having witnessed 
the riot in favor of the pamphleteer Wilkes, and the eleva- 
tion of this extraordinary genius to the position of Lord 
Mayor of London, Marat was inspired to write his first 
book, entitled. " The Chains of Bondage," — an exceedingly 
weak production, noticeable only as furnishing proof of 
his absolute incapacity to understand the English system 
of government. In 1775, he published his book ''On 
Man,^' in v/hich he endeavors to prove, that soul and body 
are two distinct and absolutely different substances; the 
former subordinate to and controlled by the latter. 

In 1777, Marat returned to France without substantial 
proof of the success he claimed for his literary works in 
England. His next book on " Medicine Galante,'' a sug- 
gestive and lewd publication, attracted the attention of 
the licentious young noblemen at the court, and finally 
that of the Count d'Artois, who offered its author the 
position of physician to his stables, in which capacity he 
continued a member of the royal household for twelve 
years. 

In the summer of 1789 he made a short visit to England, 
returning to Paris on the memorable 14th of July of the 
same year. A witness of the exciting events of that day, his 
inflammable imagination became heated to madness; amid 



MABAT. 139 

these scenes of uncontrolled popular passion, lie seemed to 
think such wild exhibitions were to last forever. 

This he believed was his grand opportunity : a field 
for the gratification of a morbid imagination. He spoke, 
but his voice was but one of the hundreds of thousands 
who talked; he wrote, but his communications bore the 
stamp of an unsettled mind, full of wild and erratic 
notions which were either ridiculed by the editors on pub- 
lication, or found their way to the waste basket. His 
unbounded vanity caused him to consider himself mis- 
judged or misunderstood. To have a paper of his own, 
was, therefore, his only recourse. Selling the sheets from 
off his bed, in January, 1790, as he states it, in order to 
start his small paper, " L'Ami du Fetiple," the sluices of 
his venom were flung wide open. His paper began to at- 
tack everything and everybody that had, or desired to have, 
the semblance of respectability and decency. No one 
looked for instruction, news, foreign or domestic, in the 
columns of his sheet. They were principally devoted to 
railings, public and private scandals, and abuse of people 
personally disagreeable to him.. 

In writing of "^aristocrats, noble or capitalistic, 'Mie 
generalized much after this fashion; ''they should be 
assassinated to the moderate number of six hundred to 
begin with; ten thousand a little later on, twenty thousand 
after, and so on, until the maximum, two hundred and 
seventy thousand, was reached.''^ 

Marat's vocabulary was not extensive, but choice; 
''infamous scoundrel,'^ "contemptible fraud, ^^ "villain- 
ous reptile," "miserable coward," and other expletives, 
were repeated ad nauseam, in line after line. In short, its 
matter was mostly abuse, high-sonnding declamation and 
•'literary mud," as we should call it to-day. But, still, 
there was system in Marat's "mud throwing." It is true, 
he was incorruptible ; that is, he never wrote for money. 



UO THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

but the value of money is relative. Marat liad no use for 
money, he seemed to prefer blood. His People's 
Friend of December 17, 1790, contains a letter addressed 
to him, in which he is informed, that of those he had 
denounced, as worthy to die, '^four had just been assas- 
sinated.'" We are told by Michelet 'Hhat the Academy 
of Sciences disdained, what, in his vanity, Marat called 
his discourses, and in turn its members were persecuted 
and denounced by his newspaper. Peaceful men such as 
La Place, Laland and Monge, true patriots, and men of 
high character, were held up to the scorn of the people. 
His persistent accusations prepared the scaffold for the 
great Lavoisier, a chemist of world-wide renown." 

In the midst of his ravings, Marat appears to have had 
some lucid intervals; occasionally the Peoples' Friend 
contained some sensible suggestions, and it is probably 
to these that the great success of his newspaper was 
due. He always was found representing the interests 
of the masses, and his criticism of unpopular measures 
and men, was often just and to the point. He strongly 
opposed the new election law, by which the workingmen 
were deprived of the elective franchise. "They have 
sacrificed their blood in your defense,"^ said he addressing 
tho bourgeois side of the assembly, ''and now as a reward 
for their devotion, they have not even the consolation of 
being considered a part of the State they have aided in 
saving. What excuse can you offer, then, to discriminate 
against these people? You admit that the poorareas much 
citizens as the rich. But you maintain that the poor man 
is purchasable. Is this true ? Look at the Monarchies of 
the world. Is it not the rich which composes the venal 
horde about their courts." In this manner did Marat 
endear himself to the jealous, suspicious, hungry people of 
Paris. They soon began to consider him their only loyal 
and disinterested representative, and his influence in con- 



M 




LE DUO DE CHARTRES— Louis Pliilippe. 



MARAT. 141 

sequence increased from day to day. His repeated appeals 
to the Municipality to take some action for the relief of 
the destitute, had the desired effect. They requested a 
loan from the National Assembly, in order to establish 
what were called — most unfortunately — '' Charity Work- 
shops/' The sum of fifteen million francs was voted for 
this object. 

These ''' shops'^ were located in different parts of the 
city, that of Mont Martre alone giving occupation to 
seventeen thousand men. It was, although well designed, 
an unwise measure, as these corralled masses subsequently 
furnished revolutionary material for the great uprisings 
of the ''Sans culottes," of 1793-93 and 94. 

The relief these workshops afforded was necessarily 
insufficient; frequent complaints were heard about the 
smallness of wages, and of being paid in depreciated 
assignats; in the meanwhile, streams of idle men flowed 
daily into the city, to claim a share of the scanty work the 
government was providing, thus aggravating the evil. 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

MIEABEAU'S DEATH— THE KING'S FLIGHT. 

During all this time the court was preparing for civil 
war and foreign intervention. 

The King, having been urgently pressed by the Assem- 
bly for his signature to the decree, requiring the clergy to 
take the oath to the constitution, at last reluctantly 
signed it. The recalcitrant priests, who still refused to 
take the oath, under the pretext that the new constitu- 
tion endangered the Catholic religion, now began to use 
their influence among their rural parishioners against it. 

The intrigues of the clergy were favored by the court, 
as this new element of discord could be utilized as the fire- 
in-the-rear contingent in case ot foreign invasion. The 
self -exiled, under the leadership of Count D'Artois were 
assembling at Coblenz, and in constant communication 
with European powers. 

lu May 1791, assurances had been received from Aus- 
tria, that war would be declared against France for the 
avowed purpose of re-establishing the old order of things. 
In the mean time the agents and secret allies of the emi- 
grants at Paris, and in the Assembly, were actively engaged 
in furthering these treasonable plans. 

The decree, which was to prohibit persons from emigra- 
ting without permission, was denounced by the royalists and 
finally defeated by Mirabeau, upon this previous pretext, 
that it was an infringement of personal liberty. Mirabeau 
had been, since Necker's retirement, in September, 1790, 
the acknowledged adviser of the court, and it is painful to 
relate, that for paltry pecuniary considerations., this great 



MIRABEA U'S DBA TH— TEE KINO'S FLIGHT. U3 

statesman from this time forth threw his influence, not 
for the overthrow, but to the undermining of the edifice 
he had taken so active a part in erecting. The new con- 
stitution, which was mainly the work of Mirabeau, was at 
best but a string of ordinances full of stipulations, which 
returned to the King most of the power he had lost by 
former enactments. 

For some time Mirabeau's health had been failing, his 
constitution having been undermined by early indiscre- 
tions and dissipation. He could not stand the mental 
strain to which he had been subjected during the two 
years of his Representative life. Unwilling to absent him- 
self from the sessions of the Assembly, of which he was at 
this time the presiding officer, his personal friend Dumont 
saw him in February, 1791, "sitting in the evening, ban- 
daged, and vainly trying to staunch the blood trickling 
from wounds made in the morning by leeches." 

Mirabeau himself was aware that the shadow of death 
had enveloped him. On the 1st of April, at eight in the 
evening, he breathed his last. His parting words to 
Damont were: "Ah! my friend, we were right when we 
wished at the beginning to prevent the Commons from 
declaring themselves the National Assembly; this is the 
origin of all our trouble. Since they have obtained the 
victory they have not ceased to show themselves unworthy 
of it. They have sought to govern the King instead oj 
being governed hy Idm." 

These words contain a world of information as to Mir- 
abeau's real principles. He.was a born noble, and was not 
even a constitutional monarchist, as some of his biogra- 
phers have claimed. His ideal government appears to have 
been a sovereign king, with the three inactive estates, and 
himself, or one of his disciples, as prime minister. 

In extenuation of his defects an English writer says: 
"His errors were not the result of his own vicious propen- 



UJf THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

sities, but of a constitutional fire-boldness and headlong 
stormfulness, traceable in all his ancestors." 

He was buried with great pomp in the Pantheon, but 
upon the discovery, through royal documents, that the 
King had paid his debts to the amount of eighty thousand 
francs, and other stipulated sums per month, his remains 
were ordered to be removed from their distinguished rest- 
ing place. 

His death was an irreparable loss to the court. Left 
without an able representative in the Assembly, the imme- 
diate flight of the King and Queen to the army of Bouille 
was resolved u|)on. The first attempt was made eighteen 
days after their friend's death under the pretext of a 
visit to St. Cloud to take part in the Easter festivities. 
Information having reached the municipality that flight 
was the real purpose, this plan was frustrated. The King 
now resolved to escape under the cover of night; orders 
were dispatched to Bouille to prepare for an escort. 
Troops were posted along the Belgian frontier. In the 
meantime, in order to disarm suspicion, the court was to 
express reconciliation with the results of the Revolution; 
consequently, all persons distasteful to the people were 
discharged from service at the Tuileries, and only such of 
the clergy as had taken the oath to support the Constitu- 
tion were received at court. The liight of royal hypocrisy 
was reached, however, when the following circular, 
addressed to foreign embassadors, was sent through the 
King's minister, Montmorin, and purposely published in 
the daily press: ''All the changes, called 'The Revolu- 
tion/ are nothing more than the removal of a series of 
abuses, which, owing to the ignorance of the people and 
the power assumed by the ministers, had been accruing for 
centuries. The most dangerous enemies at home are 
those who mistrust the intentions of the King. 

They persist in asserting that the King is unhappy and 



MIRABEA U'S DEATH— TUB KING'S FLIGHT. I45 

dissatisfied; as if there could be any other happiness for 
him than the happiness of his people ! 

'^ They say his authority is being lowered ! As if author- 
ity resting upon force were more worthy of respect than 
authority resting upon law ! They maintain that the 
King is not free ! 'Tis an infamous calumny ! An illogi- 
cal calumny; since all are aware that his Majesty volunta- 
rily acquiesced in the request of the people to come and 
live in their midst. Let it be made known^ therefore, that 
the conception which the King himself has of the spirit of 
the Constitution is as above stated; and let no doubt 
remain in the mind of any as to his Majesty^s intention of 
maintaining this constitution with all the power at his 
command." 

About the same time a letter of the King's, sent to his 
cousin, the Prince of Oonde, was published, in which the 
august emigre is told to " Come back to your native land 
to enjoy all the pleasure and happiness which it offers to 
you. Return, and instead of enemies, my cousin, you will 
find brothers. I beseech you by the ties of blood; I com- 
mand you in the name of France and my own! Obey or 
fear the dire consequence, etc." To these acts of duplicity 
the King added that of perfidy. 

Lafayette, in his capacity of Ceneral-in-chief of the 
military forces of Paris, was held responsible for the safe 
keeping of the King's person, both by "the people and the 
Assembly. It is altogether probable, that had the King 
been successful in his attempt to escape, the General would 
have been accused of collusion and his head taken to adorn 
a pike. 

The preparations for the flight of the royal family had 
been too extensive to remain a dead secret. Rumors to 
this effect having reached Lafayette, he paid the King a 
visit, the very evening of the intended flight, and obtained 
from his Majesty's own lips an emphatic denial of any 



UG TUB F0E8 OF THIS FRENCH JlFVOLUTION. 

intention to leave the country^ "^and" says the General, 
'^in such a good natured way, that I left him fully satis- 
fied I had been the victim of an empty rumor/' In the 
face of the King's recent protestations of attachment to his 
people^ his loyalty to the new Constitution, and his assur- 
ances to General Lafayette, who had befriended and pro- 
tected him in many ways — and especially on the attack 
made upon the family at Versailles, the Queen assuring the 
General he had saved their lives — in the face of all these 
facts the King breaks his royal word, and at midnight, on 
the 20th of June, 1791, escapes with his family in disguise 
from an unguarded side-door. Separating they meet at 
the Place du Carrousel, where carriages are waiting to take 
them out of the city. A coach having been built for this 
very purpose, which they were to find just beyond the bar- 
riers. The coachman lost his way, and an hour was thus 
wasted at the outset, an hour beyond all value to the 
King. The immense coach besides containing the King, 
Queen, their son, and daughter, and the Princess Eliza- 
beth, the King's sister, was compelled to halt once more, 
for the Governess, who, by law or custom, could not be 
separated from the royal Princesses. A passport had been 
obtained for the Governess, Madam de Lourzel, under the 
fictitious name Baroness de Korff — a Eussian Princess. 
The. King was to personate her body-servant, the Queen 
and Princess Elizalfeth, her ladies in waiting. Upon the 
front were seated three of the King's body-guard, dis- 
guised as domestics. The Queen's ladies in waiting 
followed in another coach. 

The arrangement agreed upon between General Bou- 
ille and the Court, through some misunderstanding, was 
not carried out. The General expected the family to 
arrive two days before, and for his escort a detachment of 
cavalry had been advanced upon the road to near Chalons- 
sur-Marne. Supposing some unforeseen event had detained 




ROLAHD. 



MlBABEA U'S DEATH— THE KING'S FLIGHT. I47 

the King, and fearing the longer stay of his troops in the 
neighborhood might arouse suspicion, they were recalled. 
All went as well as could be expected, however, until the 
following afternoon. When the coach arrived at Sainte- 
Menehould, Goguelat, the Queen^s Secretary, and young 
Choiseul, who had undertaken the execution of the pro- 
ject, were nowhere to be seen; nor were the troops there to 
escort the King. His Majesty, in a great state of uneasi- 
ness, looked out of the coach window to see what was the 
matter. He was recognized, and an officer of dragoons, 
who had not mounted his men as ordered, came forward 
to excuse himself. The municipal officers of the village 
being made aware of the King's presence, hardly knew 
what course to pursue. In this emergency, a young man 
formerly in the King's Guard, Drouet by name, volun- 
teered to follow the coach, and taking a by-road through 
the woods, he reached Clermont, where he learned the 
carriages had left an hour before. Putting spurs to his 
horse, he reached Varennes a little before the arrival of 
the King. A misunderstanding concerning the position of 
the relays, had caused another momentous delay. It was 
eleven o'clock, and the night was pitch dark. The crazy 
Guards ran about in search of the relays, which instead 
of being as agreed upon, at the entrance, were waiting at 
the other end of the town. Suddenly Drouet galloped to 
the front of the King's carriage, and startled its inmates 
by calling out : '^In the name of the Nation, stop, postil- 
lion ! You are driving the King,''' after which he passed 
on into the town, rousing the people, who were soon run- 
ning about with lanterns, some with arms, and all in a 
great state of excitement. Drums were beaten, and the 
National Guard called to arms. The postillions were 
forced on in the hope of being able to cross a bridge 
which divided the town. Drouet, and a comrade who had 
joined him, hurried to the bridge and barricaded it with 



148 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOL UTION. 

an overturned cart. Before reaching the bottom of the 
hill, an officer of the town demanded the passports. 

The Queen replied, '"^ Gentlemen, we are in a hurry/' 

*^But who are you ?" insisted the officer. 
'' The Baroness de KorfE," said the Governess. 
While carrying on this parley the officer turned his lan- 
tern to the window of the carriage, when the King was 
recognized. 

The passports were now given up and examined by the 
officer. Being signed by the King he thought the docu- 
ments all right. But the municipality not seeing the sig- 
nature of the President of the National Assembly, pro- 
nounced them fictitious. This caused renewed excitement, 
and it was thought prudent by the friends of the King 
for the royal family to alight, whereupon they were con- 
ducted to the house of a grocer. 

At 2 o'clock, the King's place of refuge having been 
discovered, a mob of citizens and peasants, armed with 
guns, forks, picks and scythes surrounded the shop. The 
King was now informed by the Mumci]3ality of Varennes 
that until orders were received from the National Assembly 
he must proceed no farther. His protests and the supplica- 
tions of the Qaeen could not move them. 

The arrival at 7 o'clock in the morning of M. de 
Eomeuf, Adjutant of General Lafayette from Paris, with 
an order for the King's arrest, put an end to the painful 
suspense of all concerned. 

Escorted by an army of National Guards the royal 
coach and other carriages were turned toward the capital. 

Eepresentatives Petion and Barnave, two of the three 
Commissioners delegated by the Assembly to escort the 
King to Paris, had met him half way and taken seats in 
the royal .coach. An over-loyal royalist, having approached 
their Majesties to express his sympathies for their misfor- 
tunes, was set upon by the infuriated mob and was about 



MIRABEA U'S DEATH— THE KI^^G'S FLIGHT. I49 

to be torn to pieces, when Deputy Barnave energetically 
interfered. This generous, and, under the circumstances, 
heroic action moved the tender heart of the Queen toward 
the young revolutionist; a friendly conversation ensued, 
and, before Paris was reached, Barnave was overwhelmed 
by the beautiful and spiritual Austrian. The menacing 
Goliath the Assembly imagined they had sent forth to ter- 
rify the royal fugitives, came back a submissive, sympa- 
thetic captive. A Republican of yesterday, he assentingly 
replied to the King's remark, ^Trance can not be a 
Eepublic." '''No, it is not ripe yet." Barnave must 
also have made a very favorable impression upon the Queen, 
for a few days afterward, in speaking of him to Mme. 
Campan, she said: "It we get the power into our own 
hands again, Barnave's pardon is written before hand in 
our hearts." 

The expected entrance of the procession into Paris 
produced great excitement among all classes. The Assem- 
bly, however, before the arrival of the cavalcade, fearing 
demonstrations of a humiliating character to the royal 
family, had posted all over the city thousands of hand- 
bills, warning '^Whoever applauds the King shall be 
whipped; whoever insults him shall be hanged ! I" 

Accordingly, the immense multitude thronging the 
sidewalks, perched in the branches of trees and upon the 
roofs of houses, received their runaway King with inau- 
spicious reserve. 

To many it seemed but the funeral cortege of royalty. 

Drouet became the hero of the hour. A vote of thanks, 
and a reward of thirty thousand francs was voted him by 
the Assembly, on which occasion the applause of the galler- 
ies became deafening. 

In addition to the betrayal of Lafayette and the Assem- 
bly, the King had insulted the Nation by leaving at the 
Tuileries a manifesto, addressed to his people, in which 



150 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

he declared "\\\^ opposition to the changes brought about 
by the revolutionists of May, 1789," thus denying every 
word of his famous circular sent to the foreign embassa- 
dors. '"^ He accused the Assembly of having annihilated 
his prerogatives, of having robbed him of his estates, and 
compelled him to sanction decrees which were distasteful 
to him. The people of Paris, he declared, held him as a 
prisoner, and had been disrespectful to him. The five 
million dollars allowed him per year for his civil list, was 
not enough to defray his expenses, and, therefore, in order 
that he might enjoy his liberty, which he could not find in 
Paris, he had left to look for it elsewhere.''' 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

A GREAT MISTAKE— THE MASSACRE OF THE CHAMP DE MARS. 

When the news of the flight of the King, his arrest and 
farewell manifesto reached the ears of the people, a 
tremendous feeling of indignation was manifested through- 
out France. The French were yet struggling with the 
idea that the King was their protector and savior. How 
could he desert his people who required his assistance now 
more than ever ? Neither was there an excuse for his 
abandonment of his country, and the act created univer- 
sal contempt among those yet professing loyalty to his 
person.. The demand for his immediate deposition by the 
National Assembly was nearly unanimous throughout the 
Departments. Unfortunately for France, and we may 
say for the rest of Europe, this Assembly, as constituted, 
did not represent the sentiments of the country at this 
time. It had been elected under different circumstances, 
had served its purpose, and should have gone out of exist- 
ence the day after the confederation. Other times had 
arisen and a different class of men were coming to the 
front, able and willing to grapple with the situation. 

An Assembly elected a week or two after the festival 
of confederation, when the heart of the Nation was filled 
with the most patriotic, generous and noble sentiments, 
would have met the crisis in a statesman-like manner. 
The King had broken the solemn compact svforn to 
between himself and the people of France. Their repre- 
sentatives were now free to take such action as, in their 
judgment, would best serve the interests of the country. 
An Assembly elected at this time must have construed tlie 

151 



152 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLVTION. 

King's flight as an act of voluntary abdication, and a for- 
feiture of all those rights and privileges secured under the 
covenant mutually entered into; that is to say, the case 
Avould have been treated in the same equitable way as an 
impartial court of justice treats a breach of contract 
between one man and another. 

Such an Assembly must have declared simply, that, 
**the King, having forfeited his rights, is hereby deposed 
and the Kepublic is established." 

The remark of M. Barnave to the King, '^ that France 
was not ripe for a Republic,"' by some may have beeen con- 
sidered as having some weight; but it is an acknowledged 
fact that when an intelligent people are left free to act 
upon their own impulses, uninfluenced by the allurements 
of wealth and power, they invariably select their best men 
to represent them. The real obstacle to the establishment 
and maintenance of republican institutions is not the lack 
of maturity on the part of the common people, but the 
immoderate ambition and greed of the more prosperous 
classes ; passions which the stringent regulations of a 
monarchy are probably better able to keep in check. 

It is useless, however, to speculate upon what a newly 
elected Assembly might have done in dealing with this 
exigency; the fact remains, that the life of the first 
National Assembly was prolonged beyond its legal term, 
through the powerful influence of Mirabeau, and now 
proved a great stumbling block to the peaceful, natural, 
reconstruction of the government. 

Instead of decreeing that royalty in France had died by 
its own hand, the Assembly acknowledged its existence by 
temporarily suspending the functions of the King, and to 
complete this act of stultification, issued a proclamation in- 
forming the people, ^'that the King had been carried off by 
enemies to the public welfare." In this effort to save the 
monarchy the Assembly started it on its speedy road to ruin. 




MARAT, 



15 A THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

On the 16th of July, the committee charged with in- 
vestigating the King's flight presented its report: " In 
the journey to Varennes/^ they said, ''there was nothing 
culpable and, even if there were, the King was invio- 
lable." 

Kobespierre, in attacking the report of the committee 
holding the inviolability of the King as a bar to his pros- 
ecution, said : " The adoption of this report can only 
dishonor you ] if adopted, I shall declare myself the ad- 
vocate of all the accused, even General Bouille. By the 
report of your committee, no crime has been committed. 
If no crime has been committed, there can be no accom- 
plices." 

Barnave, however, now fully committed to the inter- 
ests of the court, supported the report in one of his most 
brilliant oratorical efforts, and it was adopted. The recre- 
ant Deputy did not then suppose that two years later this 
speech would rise to condemn him, and finally bring him 
to the scaffold. 

The action of the Assembly in thus declaring royalty 
infallible, only widened the breach which his flight had 
created between the people and the King. The press 
championed its particular views with vehemence, keeping 
the inhabitants of the faubourgs in a constant state" of 
fermentation. 

The Revolutions de Paris, by Laustalot; the Revolution 
clc France, by Camille Desmoulins; La Chronique do 
Paris ; Le Patriot FrauQais, by Brissot; the Orateur du 
People, by Feron; La Bouclie de Fer, by Eauchet, hereto- 
fore friendly to the constitutional compact between the 
King and the people, now denounced the Assembly's 
decision. 

The circulation of Marat's UAmi dti Peuple almost 
doubled within a week. In the Jacobin Club Eobespierro 
?.nd Danton were the favored orators, and their violent 



A GREAT inSTAKE. 155 

assaults upon the Assembly, the majority of which they 
now denounced as a band of traitors, found a ready 
resrjonse among the Eepublicans. ''Now that the 
Assembly has failed to do its duty,'^ roared Danton, ''it is 
time for the people to speak." Laclos, editor of the 
journal of the Jacobins, and a friend of Danton's, there- 
upon offered a resolution to the club, calling upon the peo- 
ple to obtain signatures to a monster petition to be pre- 
sented to the Assembly, demanding a reconsideration of 
the -decree of inyiolability and the King^s immediate depo- 
sition. 

The resolution was passed, and the working people 
responded in such an enthusiastic manner, that on the 14th 
of July, not a month after the King^s return, a petition, 
containing more than four thousand bona fide signatures 
was presented to the Assembly. The Assembly, however, 
finding itself entrenched by a growing sentiment of con- 
servatism among the bourgeoisie, and the thirty thousand 
bayonets of General Lafayette, deigned no reply. Danton 
and the Jacobin Club were not to be disposed of in this 
unceremonious manner, and immediately determined upon 
a public demonstration. Accordingly, a call was issued 
for those in sympathy with the petition to meet at the 
Champs de Mars, the federation ground of the year 
before, and sign another petition. 

The audacity of the call startled the Assembly, and 
fearing the consequences of a popular demonstration at 
this time, called upon the Municipality to preserve the 
peace; whereupon Mayor Bailly issued a proclamation 
against riotous assemblages. 

His action, however, instead of preventing the meeting 
raised a spirit of opposition, and on the 17th thousands 
upon thousands- flocked to the Champ de Mars and gathered 
around the altar of the Confederation, still standing. 

In the absence of the petition drawn up in the Jacobin 



156 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REYOL UTION. 

Club, they selected a committee of four, one of whom 
drafted the following promulgation — still preserved in the 
documentary archiyes of Paris: 

" On the altar of the country, July 13, year III. Eep- 
resentatives of the people of France! Your labors are 
drawing to a close. A great crime has been committed; 
Louis flies, unworthily abandoning his post! Arrested, 
he is brought back to Paris! The people demand that 
Louis be tried; you (the Assembly) declare he shall re- 
main King. This is not the wish of the people, and 
your decree, therefore, is annulled. He was assisted in 
getting away by two hundred and ninety-two of your 
aristocrats, who have by this act declared they have 
no longer a voice in the National Assembly. The de- 
cree is annulled because it is in opposition to the voice 
of the people; your Sovereigns repeal your decree! 
The King has abdicated by his crime! Eeceive his abdi- 
cation! Convoke a fresh Constitutional power! Dismiss 
your criminal and organize a new executive ! " 

This petition received six thousand signatures, and 
probably would have received thousands more but for the 
discovery and the subsequent massacre of tv/o spies, v/ho 
were found concealed beneath the altar, thus giving the 
demonstration a seditious aspect. 

Mayor Bailly and General Lafayette, who had been the 
objects of the most violent abuse on the part of the Repub- 
lican leaders, their press and clubs, were now determined 
to crush, by one powerful effort, the seditious spirits who 
seemed to have become masters of the situation. 

At the head of ten thousand I^ational Guards, com- 
posed of infantry, artillery, and cavalry, they marched to 
the Champ de Mars. The excitement produced by the 
death of the two men had subsided and the signing of the 
petition had been quietly resumed, when Mayor Bailly 
appeared, and ordered the people to disperse! His order 




THE TEMPLE. LOUIS XVL PRISON. 



A GREA T MI8TAES!. 157 

Was replied to with angry shouts and wild cries of dissent, 
whereupon, he ordered Lafayette to use force. Blank 
cartridges being fired without producing the desired effect 
the shots being replied to by some dirt-throwing, the 
order was given to discharge a broadside of lead into the 
unarmed gathering, the result of which was the killing 
and wounding of several hundred people, and the dispers- 
ing of the rest. 

This cruel attack upon the working people by the 
bourgeoisie of Paris — the National Guards for some time 
having been exclusively formed of this class — is known in 
history as " The Massacre of the Champ de Mars/' 

The leaders of the petition-movement, Danton, Ca- 
mille Desmoulins, and Marat, editors of newspapers and 
others of the club, fearing arrest and punishment, and no 
doubt remembering the adage, ''to run away and live to 
fight another day/' disappeared and remained away 
long enough for the feeling of hate against the "mur- 
derers'' to crystalize. Returning, the warfare against 
royalty, Bailly and General Lafayette was re-opened by 
their papers and the Jacobin Club, with redoubled vio- 
lence. The blood v/hich had been spilled on the 17th 
created new divisions and bitter antagonisms between 
former political co-workers, which necessarily complicated 
the situation. 

The royalist, or reactionary party, which stood by 
the court and its demands, having been reinforced by the 
converted Barnave and his adherents, formed the only 
solid phalanx in the Assembly. From day to day the lines 
between these factions grew more accentuated. The 
constitutional monarchists, now forming the center, gener- 
ally upheld Lafayette's action on the Champ de Mars, 
while the Eepublicans denounced it as "unwarranted 
butchery." Both Bailly and Lafayette had been members 
of the Jacobin Club, but recent events making their con- 



158 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOL UTIOJ^. 

tinuance in this club impossible, they withdraw, and an 
organization, which has since been known as the Gluh des 
Feuillants, was formed. This clnb may be said to have 
rej)resented the conservative views of the bourgeoisie, and 
could have wielded considerable influence and maintained 
its political power, but for the charge brought against its 
prominent members of being the '^'^ murderers of the re- 
publican petitioners." 

When the people of the country heard that a gathering 
of miscellaneous citizens, unarmed and engaged in the 
harmless act of signing a petition to the Assembly, had been 
fired into at short range, with murderous effect, that was 
enough. They hurried to their local clubs of every name 
and description, and hearing that the Jacobin Club of 
Paris was foremost in its denunciations of the '^butchery," 
congratulations were poured in upon it from every direc- 
tion. 

At this date begins to rise to importance that ghastly 
spectre of the Eevolution, Eobespierre. He stood at the 
helm of this powerful Jacobin Club, and most ably from 
this time forth did he use it in the interest of his vaulting 
ambition. 

Eobespierre was born in Arras on the 6th of May, 1758. 
He was supposed to be of remote Irish origin, and his 
ancestors had acquired patents of nobility in France. With 
the protection of his bishop, he was placed in the College 
Louis le Grand, at Paris, where, thanks to the care of one 
of his uncles, a priest at ISTotre Dame, and the interest 
Abbe Proyard paid to him, he made rapid progress in his 
studies. 

After completing his education he returned to Arras, 
where his first important cause was the defense of the intro- 
duction of Franklin's lightning rod against the charges 
of impiety. He became a member of the Criminal Court 
of Arras, and in the discharge of his duties was called to 



A. GREAT MISTAKE. 159 

condemn a prisoner to deatli. This so affected him that 
he resigned his office, and advocated the abolition of 
capital punishment. The same as Marat, he was thoroughly 
imbued with Kousseau's theories, but, like his future col- 
legue, construed them to the detriment of humanity. 

" I once spoke with Robespierre at the house of my 
father, says Mme. de Stael, in her memoirs, when he was 
only known as a lawyer from Arras with exaggerated polit- 
ical views. His features were ignoble, his complexion 
pale, and his veins of greenish hue. He upheld the most 
absurd theories with an air of coolness and self-possession 
approaching conviction ; and I really believe that, at the 
beginning of the Revolution, he had adopted in good faith 
certain ideas he had caught from reading J. J. Eousseau 
concerning the equality of wealth and rank, which seemed 
to agree with his envious and vicious character." 

Another woman, who had often seen Robespierre, Mme. 
Roland, says of him: ''Never the smile of confidence 
rested upon the lips of Robespierre, while to the contrary 
they were constantly tightly closed with the smile of bit- 
terness and of envy, which he claimed to disdain." 

These two judgments, says Guadet, "agree with each 
other, and also agree with every thing we know of Robes- 
pierre; and if one thing is astonishing, it is the fact that 
such a man could ever become a popular idol." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THEPILNITZMANIFESTO— ACCEPTANCE OF THE CONSTITTTTION 
BY THE KING — THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY — DECREE 
AGAINST THE RECALCITRANT PRIESTS AND AGAINST THE 
EMIGRANTS. 

In order to understand the affairs of France in 1791 it 
is necessary for the reader to look across her frontier. 
Here was to be found "the best blood ^' of the nation, 
conspiring with foreign enemies for an armed invasion of 
their own country. The news of the King's proposed 
flight, among these emigrant nobles, who had formed 
themselves into a military organization, produced the 
most intense joy. Extensive preparations were being 
made to meet him with all the pomp and enthusiasm his 
position and happy escape deserved, when the information 
of his cruel detention, arrest and his return to Paris, 
shattered all their hopes. In their consternation they 
declared the Count de Provence, the King's brother, 
Eegent of France, who immediately surrounded himself 
with the usual retinue and paraphernalia of a royal court. 
A letter was sent from General Bouille to the National 
Assembly, the contents of which showed that he was in 
sympathy and acting in concert with the Count de 
Provence, whose court now established at Coblenz, had 
become the center of the counter-revolutionary con- 
spiracy. 

Their intrigues with foreign potentates with a view 
to the invasion of France were about to be crowned with 
substantial results. On the 24th of August, the celebrated 
conference at Pilnitz was held between Emperor Leopold 

160 



THE PILNITZ MANIFESTO. 161 

of Austria, and King Frederick William of Prussia, in 
which the Count de Provence and subsequently the Count 
D'Artois with the faithful General de Bouille participated. 
After several days' consultation^ during which Emperor 
Leopold's scruples at the chance of a war with liberated 
France, had to be overcome, the following notorious joint 
manifesto was drawn up, and signed on the 27th : 

''The Emperor Leopold and the King of Prussia, 
having listened to the wishes and representations of Mo7i- 
sieur (Count de Provence) and Monsieur le Comte d'Artois, 
declare conjointly, that they look upon the present posi- 
tion of the King of France as an object of common inter- 
est to all sovereigns of Europe. They trust that this 
interest will not fail to be acknowledged, and will be 
espoused by all the powers whose assistance is claimed: 
that, in consequence, they will not refuse to employ, 
conjointly with the Emperor and the King of Prussia, the 
most efficacious means, proportioned to their forces, to 
enable the King of France to strengthen the basis of a 
monarchical government, equally conformable to the rights 
of sovereigns and the welfare of the French Nation. In 
that case, their aforesaid Majesties are resolved to act 
promptly and in concert with the forces requisite to attain 
the end proposed and agreed on. In the mean time, they 
will issue all needful orders to their troops to hold them- 
selves in a state of readiness." 

This manifesto was tantamount to a declaration of 
war against France, but the German saying, "The soup is 
not eaten as hot as when it is cooked," is here applicable. 
The manifesto, while it gave encouragement to the emi- 
grants, was productive of little harm at the time, and 
might have remained so, but for the incessant agitation 
of these nobles. 

On the 3d of September, the National Assembly fin- 
ished its labors by adopting a constitution. It trans- 



IGS THE FOES OF THE FRENCH RE VOL DTIOK 

formed France from an absolute into a constitutional, 
or, rather, "^Democratic Constitutional Monarchy/^ By 
its provisions, all legislative powers were placed in the 
hands of a National Assembly, elected indirectly — that is 
through the electors — by all tax-paying citizens of the 
country. The King was inviolable, and governed 
through a responsible ministry ; he retained a temporary 
veto, with binding force during two successive legisla- 
tures. He was Commander-in-Chief of the Army, but 
could only declare vrar and conclude peace with the assent 
of the Assembly. The pardoning power was vested in 
the Assembly. The Constitution guaranteed to every 
citizen equality before the law, liberty of the press, per- 
sonal liberty, and security of property. 

On the evening of the same day the Constitution was 
presented to the King by a deputation of the Assembly. 
The reception took place in the council chamber, all the 
ministers and other dignitaries being present. 

**Sire," said M. Touret, speaking for the deputation, 
" The Kepresentatives of the Nation come to present to 
your majesty the constitutional act, which consecrates the 
indefeasible rights of the French people ; which gives the 
throne its true dignity, and regenerates the Government 
of the Empire." In receiving the act the King informed 
the deputation that he would return to the Assembly his 
decision at the shortest possible delay. 

On the 13th he addressed a message to the Assembly, in 
which he informed the Kepresentatives ^^that, having 
examined the constitutional act, he accepted it, and would 
carry it into execution." The following day he proceeded 
to the Assembly, and addressed it as follows: ''I come 
here to solemnly consecrate the acceptance I have given to 
the constitutional act. I swear to be faithful to the 
Nation and the land, and to employ all the power dele- 
gated to me for maintaining the Constitution and carrying 




_.;^:ar 



SAHTERRE. 



TEE PILNTTZ MANIFESTO. 1G3 

its decrees into effect. May this great and memorable event 
be the re-establishment of peace, become a gage of happi- 
ness to the people and further the prosperity of the empire'/' 

After a felicitous reply by the President the King 
withdrew, accompanied by the whole Assembly, The 
cortege, as it passed on, was received with sincere expres- 
sions of joy by the people, and the fond expectation was 
again indulged in that the days of danger and factional 
strife had passed away to return no more ; that the era of 
French liberty had been fairly inaugurated. 

On the 18th of September, amid public festivities, 
music and th» booming of cannon, the constitution was 
formally given to the people. 

On the 30th of September the King closed the 
Assembly in person. 

The ovation Robespierre and Petion received from the 
people, as they issued from the hall, threAV a cloud over 
this apparent state of harmony of feeling, and filled the 
hearts of the Constitutionalists with evil forebodings. 

The Assembly, in ordering the election for its succeed- 
ing body had decreed the ineligibility of its own members. 
This was Robespierre^s plan. He knew the real power of 
the next Assembly would be with the Jacobin club, of 
which he was now almost the Dictator. With singular 
short-sightedness the Royalists voted with this man for a 
measure which paved the way for their annihilation. 
Under the prevailing state of public sentiment through- 
out the country, it would have been easy to foresee that 
none but the mostprominent Republicans would be chosen 
as Representatives. For once the King saw the danger 
and opposed the measure; but the different factions, actu- 
ated by opposing motives, carried the day. 

It seemed to be a foreordained fatality that nothing 
but universal chaos should terminate the old, that the 
new might rise from its ashes. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. 



The elections for the Legislative Assembly proceeded 
peacefully, the voters on this occasion being instructed in 
regard to the details. As was to be anticipated, the polit- 
ical clubs were its principal factors, and the candidates to 
a great extent their choice. Some of the elements which 
had figured largely in the ISTational Assembly, such as the 
higher nobility and the clergy who had refused to take the 
National oath, disappeared entirely, while the progressive 
element, representing advanced revolutionary ideas, 
formed the large majority of the new Assembly. Other 
party lines were formed, and the Constitutional party, 
which held almost undisputed control of the old 
Assembly, and had passed the Constitution, sank into 
insignificance, occupying the seats to the right of the 
speaker, formerly held by the Eoyalists, and, as support- 
ers of the Constitution now sided with the King in his 
struggles with the newly elected Assembly; consequently 
they soon became as obnoxious to the people as their 
reactionary predecessors had been. The able leaders of 
this party being ineligible, the leadership fell into 
the hand of mediocrity. Its policy represented the 
aspirations of the higher bourgeoisie, which policy 
was daily losing in popular favor. The rest of 
the Assembly was composed almost exclusively of 
3^oung men, who filled with ardor for the new era 
of liberty had accepted the position of Representa- 
tives with the purest and most exalted patriotic motives. 
They were young and inexperienced, but they truly 
represented regenerated France. To a degree most of 



THE LEGISLA Tl VE ASSEMBL T. 165 

them were idealists; but all were filled with the firm pur- 
pose of having the sovereignty of the people represented 
by King as well as peasant, and that this sovereignty be 
firmly established forever. Had the court and the King 
been conscious of this prevailing sentiment, and had the 
King shown a disposition to accept their direction in a 
spirit of conciliation, all might have been well. But such 
a sensible course was hardly to be expected in a man so 
strongly confirmed in his prejudices against governmental 
modifications, a man who held such exalted views of his 
own majesty and royal dignity, and who had given so 
many proofs of his reluctance to relinquish an iota of his 
prerogatives. 

The country was in the throes of a tremendous polit- 
ical and social transformation; this fact seemed to be felt 
and appreciated by everybody but the King. He had 
acknowledged the sovereignty of the French |)eople and 
had sworn to respect it; but in his intercourse with their 
representatives he trifled with popular sovereignty and 
exasperated them with his punctiliousness. 

When the Legislative Assembly convened on the 30th 
of October, and had perfected its organization, a deputa- 
tion was appointed to wait upon the King. They were 
informed at the Tuilleries that His Majesty would not 
see them before one in the afternoon, but persisting, they 
were told to return at nine. Having been introduced, the 
King asked for the names of the members. " I do not 
even know them,'^ said he, and terminated the audience 
by telling the deputation he could not possibly see them 
on any question of moment before Friday. Thus did 
Louis XVI. remain true to his ancestors. His indiffer- 
ence to what so nearly concerned the welfare of France 
mortified his adherents in the Assembly and exasperated 
his opponents. A demand was thereupon made to abolish 
the title of "His Majesty.'^ 



166 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

*'■' There is no other majesty here," said Couthon, in 
his maiden speech, "■ than the majesty of the law and the 
people." It was, therefore, decreed before adjournment 
that henceforth, the only title the King could lawfully 
claim was that of " King of the French." The King, it 
would seem, could be made to see that the world moved 
only by heavy blows. If he insulted the Assembly, the 
Assembly found ways to immediately return the compli- 
ment. The constitutional party, however, came to the 
championship of the King by declaring the decree was 
passed only for the purpose of humiliating him. The 
Royalist press denounced the action of the Assembly as 
revolutionary. Public opinion seeming to drift towards 
this view, it was decided by a council of Ministers, to 
oppose the decree and demand its repeal. The question 
having been revived in the Assembly, it became the sub- 
ject of an acrimonious debate between the constitu- 
tional and democratic parties, when finally the decree was 
•repealed. This retrograde movement on the part of 
the Assembly was considered by the Eoyalists as a sur- 
render to the King, and their journals held up the pro- 
moters of the decree to public derision. The Jacobins 
were exasperated, venting their disappointment in violent 
denunciations at their club; but constantly threatened 
by Lafayette's National Guards, they abstained from open 
demonstrations. On the 7th, the day after the decree's 
repeal, the King appeared in the Assembly, and address- 
ing them standing, with uncovered head — an unprece- 
dented condescension — he said: 

" In order that our labors may have the beneficial results 
we have a right to expect, it is necessary that harmony 
shall prevail, and the utmost confidence continue to exist 
between the King and this legislative body. Enemies to 
our peace will seek every opportunity to spread dissension 
among us; but the love of our common country must bind 



ffc 



THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. 167 

US, and public interest keep us united. Thus will the 
power of the people unfold itself and the administration 
be harassed by no vain fears." The apparently candid 
expressions of the King were well received by the Assembly, 
and the hall resounded with " Long live the King." 

The President's reply was a gentle reminder that the 
King would be kept strictly to account. It was as fol- 
lows: 

*'Sire! your presence in this Assembly is an evidence 
of the new oath you have taken of fidelity to your country. 
The rights of the people have been forgotten, and their 
ideas upon the limits of power become confused. But a 
constitution has been born! and with it comes liberty and 
peace to France. As a citizen, it is your duty to cherish 
it — as King to strengthen and defend it, 

''Far from lessening your power, it has confirmed it, and 
has given you friends in those who formerly were styled 
your subjects. You said only a few days ago in this 
temple of our country, that you had need of being be- 
loved by all Frenchmen ; we, also, have need of being 
beloved by you. The Constitution has rendered you the 
greatest monarch in the world; your attachment to it will 
place your Majesty among the Kings most beloved by.the 
people. Strong by our union, we shall soon feel its 
salutary efforts. To purify legislation, support public 
credit, and crush anarchy, such is our duty, such our 
wishes. Such be yours. Sire, and the blessing of the 
French nation will be your best recompense." 

These patriotic sentiments were heartily approved by 
the Assembly, and all Paris went into transports of joy 
once more over the supposed settlement of their public 
affairs. All former animosities, engendered by the 
treachery of the King, his flight, and his memorial 
seem now to have passed into oblivion, and in this gush 
of generosity G-eneral Lafayette^s request for amnesty for 



IGS THE FOES OF TEE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

all those who had participated in the conspiracy to abduct 
the King was granted. 

Were these generous impulses of an over credulous 
people reciprocated by the court? Or were the King's 
candid expressions of loyalty to the Constitution and the 
Nation mere platitudes, uttered solely for the purpose of 
deceiving the people and gaining time for perfecting his 
brother-in-lav/'s European coalition? 

Such is claimed to be the fact by many historians, 
those friendly to the King's cause being of the number. 

Madame Campan, the author of a book of memoirs, 
and companion of Marie Antoinette, an eye witness to the 
behavior of the royal family behind the scenes, on the 
return of the King from the Assembly, says of the part 
the King was playing, and the agony it caused him: '' At 
length I hoped to see a return to that tranquillity which 
had so long been missed from the conferences of my au- 
gust master and mistress. The Queen attended the sitting 
(of the Assembly) in a private box. I remarked her total 
silence, and the deep grief which was depicted upon her 
countenance on her return. 

" The King came to her apartment through the private 
way on his return; he was pale; his features were much 
changed; the Queen uttered an exclamation of surprise at his 
appearance. I thought he was ill, but what was my afflic- 
tion when I heard the unfortunate Monarch say,as he threw 
himself into a chair, and put his handkerchief to his eyes. 
* All is lost! Ah! Madame, and you are witness to this 
humiliation! What have you come into France to see?' 
These words were interrupted by sobs. The Queen threw 
herself upon her knees before him, and pressed him to 
her breast. I remained with them, not from any blame- 
able curiosity, but from stupefaction, which rendered me 
incapable of determining what I ought to do. The 
Queen said to me: 'Oh, go, go!' with an accent which 



THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. 169 

expressed^ ' Do not remain to witness the dejection and 
despair of your sovereign!' Half an hour after the 
Queen sent for me. She desired to see Goguelat, to 
announce to him her departure on that very night for 
Vienna. The new attacks upon the dignity of the throne, 
which had been exhibited during the sitting; the spirit 
of an Assembly loorse than the former; the monarch put 
upon a level with the president without any deference to 
the throne; all this proclaimed too loudl}^, that the sover- 
eignty itself was aimed at. The Queen no longer saw any 
ground for hope from the interior of the country. (All 
efforts at stirring up civil-war having ended in mere spats.) 

''The King had written to the Emperor. She told me 
she would herself, at midnight, bring to my room the 
letter which M. CTOguelat was to bear to her brother, the 
Emperor of Austria." 

The Queen, however, did not start for Vienna that 
night, but went with the King, Princess Elizabeth, the 
King's sister, and the two children to the theater, ''where," 
as we are informed by M. de Lamartine, "the hopes to 
which the events of the day had given rise — his promises 
of the morning — the expression of confidence and affec- 
tion on his features, produced on the spectators one of 
those impressions when pity vies with respect, and 
enthusiasm softens the heart into veneration. The the- 
ater rang with applause, mingled with sobs; every eye was 
fixed on the royal box, as though mute reparation was 
being offered to the King and his family." 

Suppose these generous and respectful people had wit- 
nessed the scene in the Queen's private apartment only 
a few hours before, and had known that the very moment 
they were so rapturously applauding the expression of 
confidence and affection on the features of the King, a secret 
messenger was preparing to leave for Vienna that night 
with a letter from the Queen to the Emperor of Austria 



170 TEE FOES OF THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 

informing him tliat, "all was lost;" that he had been 
humiliated by an Assembly worse than the precedmg one; 
that Ms sovereignty was aimed at; that, unable to see 
any more ground for hope from the interior of the conn- 
try to restore to him his old kingdom and throne, his 
only reliance was now — on what? Foreign intervention! 
Streams of French blood; a war of devastation? 

We are further informed by Madame Campan that: 
*' While couriers were bearing confidential letters from the 
King to the princes, his brothers, and foreign sovereigns, 
the Assembly (also deluded) invited him to write to the 
princes in order to induce them to return to France/'' 

This letter was written by the King, as was another to 
the emigrants generall}^ inviting them all to return. 
These demonstrations of solicitude for the country's wel- 
fare were mere buncombe, however, and as insincere as all 
his former protestations had proven to be. He knew that 
the Pilnitz manifesto of September, and the letter from 
his brothers at Coblenz, in which these princes protested 
against all acts of the National Assembly decreed since 
1789, as illegal and void, had stirred up the blood of the 
country, and that this question of the return of the emi- 
grants would be among the first to be discussed in the 
Legislative Assembly. By writing and publishing these 
letters, the King hoped to forestall a decree against his 
relatives and friends, which he would be compelled to 
enforce if passed by the Assembly. The discussion of the 
return of the emigrants by the representatives was 
among the most noteworthy of the year, both in regard to 
its effect upon the future destiny of France, as a European 
power, and in bringing to the front the eminent represent- 
atives from the Gironde, who received the name Girond- 
ists, and were the controlling spirits of the Assembly for 
the next two years. Brissot, probably the ablest and most 
influential among them, thus eloquently defined their 



THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. 171 

position: ''If/^ said he^, "^ it be really desired to check 
the tide of emigration, we must rigorously punish the 
more elevated offenders, who have established in foreign 
lands a counter-revolutionary center. 

" The emigrants must be divided into three classes: the 
brothers of the King — unworthy of belonging to him; the 
public functionaries — deserting their posts, and delud- 
ing honest citizens; and, finally, the simple citizens, who 
follow their example from weakness or fear. You owe 
hatred and banishment to the first, pity and indulgence to 
the others. How can the citizens fear us, when impu- 
nity toward their chiefs insures their own? What can the 
emigrants think when they see a prince, after having 
squandred 40,000,000 francs in ten years, still receive 
from the National Assembly more millions, in order to 
provide for further extravagance and to pay his debts. 

Divide your interest, now centered upon the rebellious, 
by alarming the prime criminals, whose hearts have been 
corrupted from the cradle. Would you check this revolt? 
Then strike a blow on the other side of the Ehine; it is 
not in France it should be struck. It is to foreign powers 
especially that you ought to address your demands and 
throw your menaces. It is time to show Europe who you 
are, and to demand of her an account for the outrages you 
have received from her. I say it is necessary to compel 
these powers to do one of two things: either they must 
recognize our Constitution, or they must declare against it. 
In the first place, yon have not to balance yourselves ; it 
is necessary for you to assault the powers that dare to 
threaten you. Have no fears — the image of liberty, like 
the head of Medusa, will affright the armies of all 
Europe ; they fear to be abandoned by their soldiers, and 
that is why they prefer the line of expectation and an 
armed mediation. An English constitution and an aris- 
tocrat's liberty will be the basis of the reforms they will 



172 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

propose to you ; but you will be unworthy of all liberty 
if yon accept yours at the hands of its enemies/^ 

This audacious address was followed by similar argu- 
ments by Condorcet^ Vergniaud, and Isnard — the latter 
closing his fiery appeal thus: ''Cowards, we lose the 
public confidence ; by firmness our enemies would be dis- 
concerted; our enemies will swear with one hand while 
they are sharpening their swords with the other." 

The decree was adopted. Its main features were : 
" That the French assembled on the other side of the 
frontiers should be from that moment declared actual 
conspirators, if they did not return before the 1st of Jan- 
uary, 1792, and, as such, if captured after this date, be 
punished with death. ^' This decree was promptly vetoed 
by the King, which, it was claimed, clearly showed his 
connection with the conspirators. 

Upon this veto, editor Desmoulins said: ''Continue 
faithful, friends, and if they (the royalists) obstinately 
persist in not permitting you to save the nation, we will 
save it ourselves, for the power of the royal veto must 
have its limit; the taking of the Bastile could not have 
been prevented by a veto.''^ 

In November, 1791, the term for which Mayor Bailly 
was elected expired, and Lafayette, who had recently 
resigned his position of Commander-in-Chief of the Na- 
tional Guards, entered the field as candidate for the 
Mayoralty. He was opposed by Petion, a violent Eepub- 
lican. It was said the Queen disliked Lafayette, and, 
indirectly joining hands with the Jacobins, had him 
defeated — the only man who might have saved the 
monarchy, if the monarchy then could have been saved. 

The election of Petion as Mayor and defeat of Lafayette 
was of two-fold effect. It took all power from the bourgeoise 
and placed it with the patriotic clubs; it made the new 
political faction, the Girondists, masters of the situation. 



THE LEQTSLATTVE ASSEMBLY. 173 

About this time the Legislative Assembly were engaged 
with the troubles growing out of the refusal of some of 
the priests in the country to subscribe to the oath sup- 
porting the Constitution. The Assembly had sent a 
deputation to investigate the condition of affairs in 
the Vendee. The report read before the Assembly said : 
" The most odious inventions are being circulated among 
the inhabitants against the constitutional priests. They 
are told that those married by such clergymen are not 
married, and their children will be illegitimate." It was 
learned that these priests could officiate at burials only at 
the risk of their lives.; the people were warned to have no 
communications with them, and such municijoal officers 
as had installed them were declared apostates, the same as 
the constitutional priests, etc., etc. 

^'This crusade against the priests who had taken the 
oath to the Constitution," the report continued, ''has 
established a serious division among the peofde of the 
jjarishes, families even becoming divided. Every day 
witnesses the separation of the wife from her husband, 
and children abandoning their father. The municipalities 
are disorganized, and a great number of citizens have 
withdrawn from the National Guards. The destitute 
receive no assistance, and the tradesman no work unless 
he pledges himself not to participate in the masses said by 
constitutional priests.''^ On the 21st this question was 
made the order of the day, when most of the orators 
insisted upon rigorous measures. On the 3d of Novem- 
ber, Gensonne, in an eloquent appeal to the Assembly, 
claimed that the disaffection in the interior v/as to be 
attributed solely to the religious quarrels existing there, 
a state of affairs which could be quickest remedied by 
directing the parishioners to select their own priests 
from among those who had taken the oath to the Consti- 
tution. 



17 J^ THE FOES OF THE FRENCH EEYOLTITION. 

On the 29th of November the Assembly adopted, sub- 
stantially, the following decree: 

"Within eight days from the publication of the present 
decree, all ecclesiastics, having failed to take the pre- 
scribed civil oath, shall present themselves before the 
municipality of their domicile and be sworn, No ecclesi- 
astic shall hereafter obtain any pay or emolument from the 
public treasury unless provided with the proof that he has 
subscribed to the oath. 

"In addition to the loss of salary, the ecclesiastics 
who have refused to take the oath shall be considered 
suspected of evil intentions against the country, and 
shall be placed under the special surveillance of the con- 
stituted authorities. 

'' Should any trouble result in any parish from the 
teachings of such recalcitrant priest, he may, by order of 
the Department authorities, be transferred beyond its 
limits." The King vetoed this decree also. 

It has been shown that during October and November, 
1791, while the debates on the clerical decree were in prog- 
ress, the court was still carrying on a treasonable corre- 
spondence with foreign powers, and the emigrants. These 
secret intrigues could not entirely escape the notice of the 
Assembly, and on the 14th of January, 1792, Gensonne, 
in the name of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, read a 
report setting forth the grievances of France against the 
Emperor of Austria. Among these complaints were: 
''The open support accorded to the emigrants; favoring 
the cockade of the counter-revolutionists, while the 
national colors were proscribed; treaties entered into with 
other powers against the Legislative Assembly, under the 
pretext of defending the dignity of the King of France, 
and the maintenance of his crown." 

In support of this report, Gensonne said: "It is time 
for the French Nation to vindicate its independence, which 




> 



o 

Eh 
O 

O 
I— I 
H 

O 

El] 

XI 

E^ 



THE LEGISLA TI VE ASSEMBL T. 175 

is being assailed, and, especiall}^ to forestall the Congress of 
powers, which has for its object the modification of the 
French Constitution. What is this conspiracy formed 
against the country? and how long shall we suffer its 
plotters to harass us with their maneuvers? If it is true 
that these intrigues have been conducted by men who 
expect to use it as a means to raise themselves from the 
political grave in which they have recently been buried, 
can the l^ational Assembly close its eyes to this threaten- 
ing danger? Let us teach all potentates on this continent 
that tlie French Nation is resolved to maintain its Consti- 
tution in its entirety or perish entirely ivith it. 

■ The tremendous applause which greeted this inspiring 
outburst having subsided, G-ensonne proposed it be at once~ 
decreed: '"That the French Nation consider any agent of 
tlie. Executive power, or any Frenchman who takes part, 
directly or indirectly, in a Congress, the object of which 
is to be the modification of the Constitution, as an infam- 
ous traitor, and guilty of high treason." 

This allusion to the King had its effect; members 
jumped to their feet and cheered. When order was 
restored, Gensonne continued: 

*■'' I insist that the King be at once informed of this 
declaration, and with the command that he bring it to the 
knowledge of the princes now on the frontier; also, that 
he give notice, that we shall consider any prince who mani- 
fests an intention to attack the Constitution 'as an enemy 
to France." 

The decree was unanimously voted, amidst storms of 
applause, and the cry, " Yes ! Yes ! The Constitution or 
death." 

From the standpoint of the cold reasoner these out- 
bursts of fervent enthusiasm may appear somewhat strange 
and dramatic ; but it must be remembered that the 
Revolution was assailed by an intriguing court and a sedi- 



m THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOL UTlON, 

tious clergy from within, and threatened by a powerful com- 
bination of foreign monarchs and treasonable emigrants 
from without. The Executive and Ministry were hostile 
to the Assembly, and dishonored their own responsible 
positions by plotting with the enemies of the country. The 
arch-traitors of this body, Delessert, Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, and Bertrand de Molleville, having both been 
denounced by the Assembly as unworthy of confidence, 
were nevertheless retained by the King. Accordingly, on 
the 16th of March, 1792, Brissot offered the motion, '''to 
impeach Delessert for malfeasance in office and treason- 
able practices against his country." The decree was 
passed, whereupon the terror-stricken Ministry, with the 
exception of Degrave, resigned. • 



CHAPTEE XX. 

THE GIRONDIST MINISTRY -MADAME ROLAND.-WAR AGAINST 
AUSTRIA-THE KING'S AGENT, MALLET DU PAN. 

The King was now placed between the alternatives of a 
violent outbreak or choosing a council of advisors in har- 
mony with the majority of the Legislative Assembly. He 
chose the latter ; and some days after. General Dumouriez 
was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

Jean Francis Dumouriez was born in Cambria, Janu- 
ary 25, 1739. He distinguished himself during the Seven 
Years' War against Frederick the Great, in which he was 
repeatedly wounded. He was actively engaged in the 
annexation scheme of Corsica to France. He also took 
j)art in the revolutionary movement in Poland. Returning 
to France at the elevation of Louis XVI., he was placed in 
command of Cherbourg, which was strongly fortified under 
his supervision. In 1787 he was appointed a Brigadier- 
General. At the outbreak of the Eevolution, he suc- 
ceeded in gaining popularity with the leaders of the move- 
ment, but still maintained friendly relations with the court. 
Having joined the Jacobin Club, hS became acquainted 
with the leaders of the Girondists, who were captivated by 
his apparent loyalty to their cause. 

Dumouriez, seeing in the impending war with the 
powers great opportunities for the gratification of his 
vaulting ambition, ^'^ trimmed his sails to catch the breeze." 
At fifty-six he was one of those young old men who, com- 
bining the fire of youth with all the deliberation of age, 
became an admired figure in the whirl of events. His 
desire for fame now increased in proportion to the years 
he had lost in fruitless efforts, 

177 



178 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REYOLVTION. 

Lamartine describes him, ''Asa man of that middle 
stature of the French soldier who wears his uniform grace- 
fully, his haversack lightly, and his musket and saber as if 
he did not feel their weight. Equally agile and compact, 
his body had the cast of those statues of warriors who 
repose on their expanded muscles, and yet seem ready to 
advance. His attitude was confident and proud; all his 
motions were as rapid as his mind. His head, rather 
thrown backward, rose well from his shoulders, and turned 
on his neck with ease and grace — as with all elegant men. 
His brow was lofty, well turned, and well displayed. The 
salient and well defined angles of his face announced 
sensibility of mind added to delicacy of understanding. 
His eyes were black, large and full of fire; his nose and 
the oval of his countenance were of the aquiline type, 
which reveals a race ennobled by war and empire; his 
mouth, flexible and handsome, was almost always smiling; 
no tension of his lips betrayed the efforts of his plastic 
mind — a master mind that played with difficulties and 
overcame obstacles. Devoted to the fair sex and easily 
enamored, his experience with women had imbued him 
with one of their highest qualities — pity. He could 
not resist tears, and those of the Queen would have 
made him a Cid of the throne. He had no political 
principles; the Revolution was to him nothing more than 
a fine drama, which was to furnish a grand scene for his 
abilities and a part for his genius. A great man for the 
service of events; if the Revolution had not beheld him as 
its general and preserver, he would equally have been the 
general and preserver of the coalition. Dumouriez was 
not the hero of a principle, but of the occasion. Meeting 
the great leaders of the Gironde at Mme. Roland's, he 
affected full compliance with the will and interests of their 
party. This man was to be for three short months the 
last support of the French throne. He used his best 



THE GIRONDIST MINISTRY. 179 

efforts to reconcile tlie King and tlie Queen with the exist- 
ing state of things, or as established by the Constitntion." 

In order to constitute harmonious action between the 
members of the Cabinet, Lacoste, a friend of Dumouriez, 
received the portfolio of the ISTavy; Duranton, that of 
Justice; Claviere, a colleague of Brissot, and strongly 
indorsed by him, was given the Treasury; and Roland, the 
husband of Mme. Roland, was charged with the portfolio 
of the Interior. 

This Cabinet, representing the views and tendencies of 
the majority in the Assembly, was not the free choice of 
the King, consequently, never received his good opinion 
or enjoyed his confidence. *• It was detested by the Queen, 
and as they passed through the anti-chambers were sneered 
at by her insolent courtiers. 

Before entering the narration of events as they trans- 
pired under the Girondist Cabinet, it is necessary to bring 
before the reader the antecedent history of the beautiful 
and accomplished woman referred to above, Mme. 
Roland, who, it was claimed, was largely iastrumental in 
the formation of this Ministerial Council. Mme. Manon 
Jeanne de Roland was the gifted wife of Roland de la Pla- 
ti^re, now Minister of the Interior. She was as remark- 
able for her talents as for her virtues. 

She possessed the ability to appropriate to herself the 
spirit of knowledge and its masculine elements without 
losing the grace and softness of her sex. A Parisian by 
birth, her father a bailiff, from her infancy she had 
enjoyed and imbibed the vivacious spirit of the merry 
capital. A great reader, her father had placed in her 
hands such books as strengthen the mind. At the age of 
eleven she was sent to a convent, where she formed the 
friendship of Sophie Canet, with whom for eight years she 
carried on an interesting correspondence. These letters 
were published in 1841. 



180 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOL UTION. 

In 1780 she was married to M. de Koland, more than 
twenty years her senior. In 1784 they visited England 
and together studied tlie workings of her constitutional 
monarchy. Eeturning to France, and taking up their 
residence at Lyons, they began the publication of a work 
entitled: ' '^ A Dictionary of Manufactures and Art. ^^ At the 
outbreak of the Eevolution, which they hailed with equal 
enthusiasm, Roland became a municipal officer of Lyons, 
while Mme. Roland contributed to a new democratic 
journal. In 1791 they removed to Paris, Roland having 
been chosen representative to the National Assembly by 
the workiugmen of Lyons. Her home in Paris soon 
became the rendezvous of the most prominent members, 
both of the Girondist and the Jacobin party — Robespierre 
being one of her daily visitors. Her over-zealous admirers 
saw in her the head which directed the husband as well 
as the Assembly, or as one of them has said, " Mme. Roland 
is the man of the Girondist party. ^' On the other hand, 
calumniators have endeavored to throw suspicion, not only 
upon her motives, but upon her private character; impar- 
tial history, however, has vindicated both. '•' Madame de 
Roland," says M. Guadet, '' with charming simplicity, 
relates herself what she thought, what she felt, what she 
said, and what she did; if you desire animated scenes, 
poetic pictures, sentiment, warmth, intellectuality, dra- 
matic tableaux, take it; the few lines she will furnish you 
have more value and express more than all you will ever 
be able to invent concerning her." Mme. Roland having 
written her memoirs during her imprisonment, and with 
the imminence of the scaffold before her eyes, they bear 
the imprint of an ante-mortem statement. They must, 
therefore, be considered the most trustworthy testimony. 
In speaking of her husband. Minister Roland, she says: 
'' A trusty, honest man; well informed, industrious, and 
severe as Cato; Just as opinionated in his ideas and as 



THE GIRONDIST MimSTRT. mi 

brusque in his repartees, but, perhaps, not as exact in 
discussion/" Of herself she says: "^I have, perhaps, as 
much firmness as my husband, but more flexibility; my 
energ-y has milder forms, but they rest upon the same 
principles; I shock less, but penetrate better/^ In speak- 
ing of her participation in her husband's labors, and her 
relations with the public men of the times, she says: 

''The habit and the taste of a studious life made me take 
part in the labors of my husband, while he was a simple cit- 
izen; I wrote as I did eat, with him, because the one was as 
natural to me as the other, and existing only for his hap- 
piness, I devoted myself to what gave him the most pleas- 
ure. He wrote of the arts; I endeavored to do the same, 
although it annoyed me; he loved erudition; we made 
common researches; he prepared some literary composi- 
tion for an academy; we worked together, or separ- 
ately, subsequently to compare, and either to prefer the 
best or remodel both into one. He became Minister. 
I never meddled with the administration; but when 
a circular or an important public document was to be 
prepared, we corrected, as we had been accustomed to 
do, and I, imbued with his ideas, and impelled by my 
own, took the pen, which I was more at leisure to use 
than he. Both having the same principles and the same 
spirit, we succeeded in agreeing upon methods, and my 
husband's work lost nothing in going through my .hands. 
I could express nothing in regard to reason and justice 
which he was not capable of realizing and sustaining with 
his character and his conduct. Without me Eoland would 
not have been less a good administrator; his activity and 
his ability were all his own, as much as his probity. Joined 
with me he created more sensation, because I infused into 
his writings that admixture of force with tenderness, of 
authority with reason, and that charm of sentiment which 
appertains, perhaps, only to a woman of sense and sensi- 



182 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

biiifcy. While my husband was in the Ministry I made it 
a law never to make nor receive visits, and never to 
invite women to dinner. I had no great sacrifices to make 
in this respect; not having resided in Paris for some years, 
my social circle was not extensive; moreover, I had not 
taken part in grand society because I loved my studies as 
much as I detested the other, and I was annoyed in com- 
pany of sots. Accustomed to pass my days within my 
house, I participated in the labors of Eoland, and culti- 
vated my particular tastes. I never had a society circle, 
properly speaking. I received at dinner, twice a week, the 
Ministers, the Deputies, those whom my husband found it 
necessary to entertain, or with whom he wished to pre- 
serve more intimate relations. These discussed public 
affairs in my presence, because I did not have the mania of 
meddling in them. Of all the parts of my vast apartment 
I reserved for my daily life the smallest salon, turning it 
into a study, furnished only with my books and a desk. 
It often happened that friends or colleagues, desiring to see 
the Minister upon confidential matters, instead of going 
to his bureau, with its public surroundings, came to me and 
requested me to call him. I thus found myself cm fait 
with current affairs without intrigue or vain curiosity. 
Sometimes it also happened that his friends who had 
brought news, or wished a word to say to Eoland, charged 
me with its transmittal at my first opportunity. ■'' 
In regard to her mode of living Mme. Eoland says: 
*' Taste and simplicity distinguished my table ; orna- 
mented luxuries never appeared ; one was at ease without 
devoting too much time to ceremony — there being but 
one service. Fifteen covers was the ordinary number of 
guests ; seldom eighteen, and only once twenty. Such 
were the repasts traduced at the tribunes of the 
Jacobins, as sumptuous feasts, where ' a modern Circe 
compromised all those who had the misfortune to partake/ 



135^-^ ^ ^=Gf ^^^^i 





DAHTOH. 



THE GIRONDIST MINISTBT. 183 

We sat down at five ; at nine none remained at my lionse. 
This was the court of which I have been made the Queen ; 
this hearth of conspiracies with an open door ! The other 
days I was entirely alone with my husband, my little girl 
taking her meals with the governess. Those who have 
seen me in these days, sometime hereafter, when the voice of 
truth can again be heard, will bear witness to my words." 

This candid and touching I'ecital carries with it its own 
conviction. 

The Girondist Ministry went earnestly to work to pre- 
pare France for the impending crisis. War was imminent. 
Should it be an offensive or defensive war ? This was the 
question which the Assembly was to decide. 

Brissot, the leader of the Girondists, was for an im- 
mediate declaration of war and an aggressive policy. 
Robespierre representing the Jacobins, distrusted the Gen- 
eral-iri-Command, and believing that France was not pre- 
pared for an offensive campaign, favored the policy " of 
armed observation." However, matters on the frontier 
became daily more complicated. On the 7th of February 
a treaty was signed at Berlin between the Emperor of 
Austria and the King of Prussia for the avowed purpose 
of suppressing the troubles in France and Poland ; and on 
the 17th an additional agreement was signed at Vienna, 
by which the Emperor engaged to furnish 180,000 effective 
troops and the King of Prussia 60,000, in order to carry 
the treaty of the 7th into effect. 

Early in March, General Dumouriez demanded from 
the Emperor an explicit and categoric declaration, v/hich 
demand was replied to as follows : " Austria favors 
peace, provided the French monarchy be based upon the 
royal declaration of June 23, 1789, reestablishing the three 
orders; that the ecclesiastical domains be restituted, and 
Alsatia be returned to the German princes with all their 
rights of sovereignty and feudality confirmed," 



18J^ THE FOES OF THE FRENCH BEVOL UTION. 

The reading of tliis impudent message to the Assembly 
created intense feeling. Expressions of indignation and 
resentment and the demand for an immediate declaration 
of war were heard on all sides. 

On the 30th of April General Dumouriez appeared in 
the Assembly with a declaration of war against Austria, 
approved by the King. The King himself addressing the 
Assembly then said: 

"Having exhausted all means for the maintainance of 
peace, I come, by the terms of the Constitution, to formally 
propose to you war against the King of Hungary and 
Bohemia." (Francis II. not having yet been elected 
Emperor of Austria and Germany.) 

War had previously been resolved upon by the Assembly, 
and would have been declared without the King's sanction, 
if necessary. Being aware of this, he now concluded to 
take a step in advance of the Assembly. 

There are numerous authentic documents, easy of access 
to day, which would leave not a particle of doubt in the 
mind of the reader that Louis XVI. at that time was 
secretly conspiring with the enemies of France for the 
overthrow of the Constitution. It is proven by the ''Mem- 
oirs Secrets" of the King's confidant, Bertrand de Molle- 
ville, Minister at the time, that almost the very day the 
King proposed to the Assembly his declaration of war he 
had approved sending the secret agent of the court, Mallet 
du Pan, to the King of Prussia. This man received 
detailed instructions partly written by the King's own 
hand before leaving for the enemy's camp. There he pre- 
sented himself to the Duke of Brunswick, General-in- 
Chief of the combined armies. Mallet du Pan finding 
some of these dignitaries somewhat reserved, produced 
a letter, written by the King, himself, in the following 
language: 

" The person which will present to you this paper knows 



TEE GIRON-DIST MINISTRY. 185 

my intentions^, and you may have confidence in what he 
will say to you, in my name.'' 

ISTo hesitancy to communicate with the secret agent of 
Louis XVI. was thereafter entertained by either the Duke of 
Brunswick or the foreign ministers. 

Mallet du Pan, who was entrusted by the King Avith 
the duties of a secret plenipotentiary, was publisher until 
April, 1792, of the royalistic JlfercMre cZe drawee. In his last 
number he reviewed the situation in France, which review 
made ifc necessary for his safety to leave the country. 

" Of all forms of government, ^^ he said, " democracy, 
to a debased nation, is that which most certainly general- 
izes the passions by fomenting them. It fascinates the 
vanity, and exalts the ambition of the most vulgar minds 
— opens a thousand doors to cupidity in the desire to par- 
ticipate in power. Until our time, republican dissensions 
having been almost exclusively confined to the proprietors, 
the circle of popular ambition did not reach the lower 
classes, who, by their pursuits, their poverty and their 
ignorance, are naturally ^hut out from the administration; 
but now it is upon this very class that has devolved the 
formation, the empire, the government of the new poli- 
tical system. From the chateau of Versailles, and the 
ante-chamber of the courtiers, the supreme authority has 
passed, without any counter-balancing power, into the 
hands of the proletaires." 

With, these words. Mallet du Pan took leave of his 
readers to devote himself to the King^s service in foreign 
lands, where he would not be subjected to the danger of 
being called to account for his treasonable utterances. He 
was just the man the King required in this emergency. 
An absolutist from conviction, his heart full of hatred for 
the leaders in power, he was, of all the King's adherents, 
the best equipped to represent His Majesty's secret designs 
abroad. 



186 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 

His orders were, ^"^to proceed to Berlin, Vienna, and, 
lastly, to Coblenz, to represent to the King of Prussia, the 
Emperor of Austria, and the princes (his brothers), the 
situation of the kingdom, as well as the intentions of the 
King with respect to the war," etc, etc. 

It must be borne in mind that this secret agent was 
spirited out of France in the month of May, after war had 
been declared, and at a time when a powerful army of 
more than two hundred thousand men stood ready to 
march across the frontier to attack her. In order to 
remove from the mind of the reader the least doubt 
concerning Mallet du Pan's authority, we quote from the 
account of his transactions, related by himself : 

" Credentials were indispensable to me ; the more so, as 
Germany had been inundated with secret agents, or 
pretended emissaries, professing to represent the will 
of the King, the Queen, and the French princes in turn. 
This multitude of emissaries, their indiscretion and jeal- 
ous opposition to each other, had justly served to make 
such advances discredited. But I could not, without the 
most glaring imprudence, carry with me a written author- 
ity from His Majesty through the hundred leagues of 
country to be traversed before leaving France. The mail 
was no longer safe ; transmission by hand would have 
rendered communications of its contents indispensable, 
which it was important to avoid. M. de Montmorin 
thought of making the authority of his Majesty come 
from the Count de Marcy d'Argenteau (former Austrian 
Minister at the French court), from whom I should receive 
it at Brussels ; but correspondence with that ambassador 
having become precarious since the commencement of 
hostilities, it was decided by the confidential adviser of 
the King (Marie Antoinette), that M. le Chevalier Ber- 
trant, brother of the Minister, should join me at Cologne, 
on his way to England ; that he should bring me there 



THE GIRONDIST MimSTBY. 187 

ulterior instructions, and the credentials, which would 
insure my recognition by the two sovereigns at Frankfort, 
their ministers and the princes — brothers of Louis XVI. 

'' I was ordered to keep my mission an inviolable secret ; 
not to disclose it to any person, unless necessity demanded, 
except to the two monarchs, the princes — His Majesty's 
brothers, the Marshal de Castries, and M. de Bouille. I 
was, morever, directed to consult M. de Castries, already 
informed of the intentions of His Majesty. In honoring 
me with his own confidence. His Majesty condescended to 
declare to me that he expected from my zeal success, of 
which he fully appreciated the importance ; that I seemed 
to him more capable than anyone else of fulfilling that 
hope, and that he considered me especially qualified to 
demonstrate the necessity and wisdom of his plans, as 
well as the character of the conjunctions which called for 
their execution. 

"It was in fact a very delicate negotiation, to present 

such important interests in their true light, and to advo- 
cate a system of combined direction between the King 
and the tivo lelligerent powers — a system upon which 
depended the fate of their Majesties of France, and even 
of Europe itself. 

"In a conversation of several hours had with M. de 
Montmorin at his house, and in the presence of M. 
Malouet, I begged that minister to communicate to me 
what he knew of the disposition of the allied powers. He 
answered my question with candor and precision; he 
showed me dispatches and official reports which justified 
his opinions ; he did not conceal from me any of the 
embarrassments which I should have to encounter, etc. 

"The fundamental object to wliich we directed our 
attention, and which was that of the private words 
and instructions of His Majesty, was the especial impor- 
tance of making the war retain the character of a foreign 



188 THE FOES OF TEE FBENCE REVOLUTION. 

ivar of one power against another, in order to dispel any 
idea of collusion between the King and the two Courts ; 
to bring the termination of the affair to the form of an 
arbitration betv/een His Majesty and the foreign powers, 
on the one side, and, on the other, between His Majesty 
and the Nation," 

Sometime before Mallet du Pan was taken into the 
confidence of the court, the Queen, who was fully a^vare 
of the plansof Dumouriez, wrote a letter to her Austrian 
confidant, Marcy^ then at Brussels, in which she informed 
him that Demouriez, being convinced an agreement had 
been concluded between the powers concerning the march 
of the troops, had now the intention of beginning the war 
by an attack on Savoy and another on the country sur- 
rounding Liege. *'It is the army of Lafayette," said the 
Queen, 'Svhich is to make the latter attack, so the ministers 
resolved yesterday, and it is tuell to hnow their plans, in 
order to put oneself on guard, and to be able to take all nec- 
essary measures. According to all appearances, this will be 
done quickly." It is true, the details of these conspiracies 
were not known by the people; rumors, however, of 
intrigues and of treasonable consultations of secret emis- 
saries, etc., were continually afloat, arousing their dis- 
trust. Finally this suspicion reached conviction, and 
caused the gamins in the streets, at the sight of a minister's 
carriage, to exclaim, "Here goes one of the Austrian 
committee of the Tuilleries." France was thus placed face 
to face with the alternative, either to tamely submit, bend 
the knee to foreign despots and their allies — the King, the 
princes and emigres at Coblenz — or resist to the death! 

The Assembly chose the latter without a moment's hes- 
itation. To offer to their enemies effective resistance, their 
object must be to paralyze the efforts of the traitors at home, ' 
and, under the inspiration of patriotism, to try and organize 
the fighting force of the country into battalions. 




BARRERE. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

DISRUPTION OF THE GIRONDIST MINISTRY-RIOTOUS DEMON- 
STRATION OP JUNE 20TH-LAFAYETTE LECTURES THE AS- 
SEMBLY— VERGNIAUD EXPOSES THE KING'S DUPLICITY— THE 
COUNTRY IN DANGER. 

To add to the anxiety of the situation, a ministerial 
crisis threatened the country. The King claimed to have 
been insulted by M. de Roland and the two other Girond- 
ists of the Cabinet, and ordered Greneral Dumouriez to 
furnish him with three names to supplant those three 
objectionable ministers. Dumouriez brought the list to 
the King, at the same .time tendering his resignation as 
Minister of War, which being accepted, on the 17th of 
June he left Paris for active duty in the field. Thus was 
severed the last tie of confidence binding the Assembly to 
the Crown. 

The Cabinet was now made up of obscure men with 
royalistic predilections, and the first official act was the 
transmission of tv/o of the King's vetoes to the Assembly; 
the one against the decree in reference to the seditious 
priests, the other against the formation of a camp of sev- 
enty thousand patriotic soldiers, which troops the Assem- 
bly had deemed necessary for the protection of the capital 
against foreign invasion, and for its own safety against a 
possible coup de main on the part of the court. The 
veto of these measures aroused the ire of the clubs, and of 
the people of the faubourgs, and it was decided to make 
preparations for an immense demonstration in favor of 
the decrees. On the 20th of June, 1792, the third anni- 
versary of taking the oath at the Tenis Court, a deputa- 

189 



100 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

tion was sent to the Council General of the Municipality 
of Paris for the proper authorization. This being refused, 
Santerre, the mover of the demonstration, and his friends 
determined, nevertheless, to carry out their plan. On the 
day appointed an armed mob of ten thousand men pre- 
sented themselves before the Assembly with a letter from 
Santerre, asking that their petition be received. The 
deputation being admitted, its spokesman warned the 
Assembly, ''that time for dissimulation had passed; that 
the King was not in accord with the people's representa- 
tives, and that the liberty and security of the French 
Nation should not depend upon the caprice of a single 
individual.''' After a quieting reply from the President, 
the Assembly gave its consent for the petitioners to march 
in a body through the hall. A disgraceful scene now fol- 
lowed : Santerre, at the head of the vulgar, ferocious rabble, 
armed v/ith pikes, sabers, knives and sticks, entered the 
Assembly Chamber. One of these savages carried a calf's 
heart upon a pike, with the inscription: ''Aristocrat's 
heart;" another flourished in the form of a banner, a pair 
of old tattered breeches, surmounted with the inscription, 
" Vive Us sans-culoftesf " This representative emblem 
was presented by Santerre to the President of the Assem- 
bly, as a token of friendship from the citizens of the Fau- 
bourg Saint Antoine, and was humbly accepted. From 
the Assembly this noisy mob, which had now increased to 
thirty thousand, proceeded to the Tuileries, where the 
King was subjected to many indignities. Notwithstand- 
ing their menaces and violent denunciations, they were 
unable to extort from the King the withdrawal of his 
vetoes and the sanction of the decrees. " This is neither 
the time nor the place," calmly replied the King. Mayor 
Petion finally succeeded in restoring order. Lamartine, in 
his history of the Girondists, as well as other writers, charge 
the Mayor with the responsibility of this demonstration. 



DISRUPTION OF THE OIBONDIST MINISTRY. 191 

The most distinguished among the Grirondists^ Verg- 
niaud, Guadet^ Isnard, Brissot, Condorcet and Roland, 
were ahnost strangers in Paris, and had no connection 
and consequently no influence with, the rabble of 
the faubourgs. ''That day,^' says M. Thiers, in his 
" History qf the Revolution," "was the work of no one 
in particular; it was the work of all. The conflict 
between the King and the people had become perma- 
nent since the former's flight to Varennes. The short 
period of the Girondist Cabinet intervened as a sort of 
armistice, and its sudden dismissal was a firebrand thrown 
into inflammable material; the Council General hoped to 
suppress the flame, but it was only repressed to take fire 
in the Assembly arid Tuileries.'^ 

General Lafayette now appeared on the scene in the 
amusing role of arbiter between the King and the people, 
and censor of the National Assembly. Leaving his 
troops facing the Austrian army on the frontier, he arrived 
in Paris on the 28th of June, and presented himself at the 
bar of the Assembly. lie informed the country's law-mak- 
ers " that the indignities committed on the 20th, at the 
Tuileries, had determined him to come to Paris to pre- 
serve the libei"ty of the Assembly and of the King, and 
to request, in the name of the army and of all honest peo- 
ple, that the perpetrators and instigators of the outrages 
of that day be brought to justice." 

In language of the keenest sarcasm, M. Guadet replied, 
expressing the sentiment of the astonished Assembly. 
" As soon as I heard of M. Lafayette's presence in Paris," 
said he, ''I was seized v/ith the consoling thought that 
our foreign enemies had been vanquished — the Austrians 
defeated! This illusion, alas! was of short duration. 
Oar condition on the frontier is not altered, and yet Lafay- 
ette is in Paris! What jaowerful motive brings him here? 
Our interior troubles? He is apprehensive, perhaps, that 



192 THE FOES OF TEE FRENCS BEVOL UTION. 

the Assembly is not strong enough to suppress them. He 
constitutes himself the mouthpiece of his army and of the 
honest people! Who are these? How can the army delib- 
erate;, and who are the honest people for whom the Gen- 
eral pretends to speak?" 

Lafayette, however, was not to be disconcerted. He 
had come to conquer the Santerre of the Revolution in 
the name of the King — with the Assembly, if possible; 
without it, if necessary. Had he not been the organizer and 
adored commander of the bourgeois militia, and would 
these valiant guards not follow his word of command ? 
He did not seem to remember that his opponent, Petion, 
was now Mayor of Paris, and, more, the Queen still his 
relentless enemy. Thus it happened that his orders for a 
revievv'' of the National Guard on the following day were 
countermanded by Petion, and M. Lafayette, who had 
marched up the hill on the 28th, marched down again on 
the 30th, returning to his army not a wiser, perhaps, but a 
very disappointed man. 

'^He was astonished," says Guadet, ''that the popular 
flood, which he had helped to raise, had passed beyond the 
limit he and his bourgeois friends had traced in the sand. 
They told the people, ' you are sovereign ! ' and now they 
were astonished that the people believed it. They 
answered, 'we have only followed your advice. You have 
arrested the King and his family; you have suspended him 
from his functions; you have delivered him over to us, 
bound hand and foot, and now, when we propose to prevent 
him from sundering his fetters with the means we are accus- 
tomed to use, you would treat us as enemies of the 
Nation.'" 

The fact that General Lafayette was permitted to 
resume the command of his army, without even the 
attempt being made to punish him for his impertinence, 
speaks well for the patience of the Assembly. The posi- 



DISRUPTION OF THE QIBONDiST MINISTRY. IDS 

tion he occupied, as commanding officer in the field, was 
one of his own selection. Wai" had been declared, and the 
Austrian army was camped within two days^ march from 
•his own forces. To leave his post of duty under such cir- 
cumstances, upon any pretext whatsoever, was to tarnish 
the brilliant military reputation, to say the least, he had 
gained in the American War for Independence. 

Tha greatest danger menacing France at this time 
was not in Paris, but on the frontier, toward which the 
Duke of Brunswick was advancing with an army of 
120,000 men — 80,000 Prussians under his immediate 
command, from the north, 20,000 Hessians, as many 
"loyalists" under Hohenlohe at his left flank, and the 
Austrian army approaching along the upper Ehine. This 
threatened invasion naturally increased the popular 
excitment from day to day, and the sentiment of hostility 
against the conspirators at the court arising, the situa- 
tion seemed fraught with danger. The National Assem- 
bly in this portentous hour decreed that, when the peril 
of France should become extreme, it would formulate the 
danger in this simple sentence : " La patrie est en 
danger I" In view of this dreaded emergency, Vergniaud, 
the great orator of the Girondists, ascended the steps of 
the Tribune, and delivered one of those stirring appeals 
to his countrymen, similar to that of Patrick Henry in 
the early days of the American Eevolution. He began 
with a statement of the situation of France ; recalled 
the decrees of the Assembly which had been vetoed 
by the King ; exonerated him, but accused his Cabinet 
of plotting treason. Step by step he unfolded the 
conspiracy carried on in the name of the King. 

" The French princes," said he, ''have endeavored to 
arouse all the courts of Europe against the French Nation. 
Is it to vindicate the dignity of the King that the treaty j 
of Pilnitz was formed, and the monstrous alliance of the 



IQjf. THE FOBS of TRE FRENCH REVOL UTION. 

courts of Vienna and Berlin concluded ? Is it to defend 
the King that we have seen the ancient companies of the 
Eoyal Guards mustered under the standard of rebellion ? 
Is it to come to the assistance of the King that the emigres 
solicit and obtain positions in the Austrian army ? Is it 
to join these valiant cavaliers of royalty that other valiants, 
full of honor and delicacy, abandon their posts in the face 
of the enemy, violate their oaths, steal the army chests, 
endeavor to corrupt the soldiers of the rank and file, and 
thus find their glory in cowardice, perjury, desertion, 
theft and assassination ? Is it only against the National 
Assembly, and to maintain the splendor of the throne, 
that the King of Hungary and Bohemia levies war against 
us, and the King of Prussia is marching against our fron- 
tiers ? In short, all the calamities which we are destined 
to suffer are threatened in the name of the King. Now, 
I read in the Constitution, ^ If the King places himself at 
the head of an army and directs its forces against the 
Nation, or fails to formally oppose such an enterprise, 
executed in his name, he will be considered as having 
abdicated the throne.'' I ask you, now, what is to be 
understood by a formal opposition ? My judgment tells 
me that it is an act of resistance proportioned to the dan- 
ger to be overcome. For instance, if, during the impend- 
ing war, 100,000 Prussians should threaten one part of our 
frontier, and 100,000 Austrians another part, and the 
King, as supreme chief of the public forces, should oppose 
to each of these redoubtable armies tenor twenty tlwusand 
men, could it be said that he had exhausted the means of 
resistance and complied with the requirements of the Con- 
stitution ? And if, in consequence of such plain viola- 
tion of a sacred duty, the soil of France should be 
drenched with blood, the Constitution overthrown by 
the invaders, and the counter-revolution accomplished, 
after which the King should tell you, in justification, 'it" 



DISRUPTION OF THE GIRONDIST MINISTRY. 195 

is true that these enemies claimed to act solely to restore 
my power, vindicate my dignity, and restore to me my 
kingly rights, but I have proven to you that I was not an 
accomplice; that I obeyed the Constitution by placing 
armies in the field; it is true these armies were weak, but 
the Constitution does not prescribe their numbers; it is 
true I called them out too late to be effective, but the 
Constitution says nothing as to the time; it is true armies 
of reserve should have been early formed, but the Consti- 
tution is silent on this point; it is true that when our 
generals advanced victoriously into the enemy's country, 
I ordered them to halt, but the Constitution does not pre- 
scribe aggressive warfare — it prohibits it even; it is true 
that my Cabinet officers continually deceived the Assembly 
in regard to the number and disposition of the troops, but 
the Constitution leaves their appointment exclusively in 
my hands; it is true that the National Assembly has 
issued useful and even necessary decrees which I have 
refused to sanction, but the Constitution gives me that 
right, which I intend sacredly to maintain; it is true, at 
last, that the counter-revolution is an accomplished fact; 
that despotism will return into my hands the iron scepter 
of my ancestors; that I shall crush you; that you will 
writhe; that I shall punish you for the insolence of 
endeavoring to be free; — all this, however, I have done and 
shall do under the Constitution: who will dare to doubt my 
fidelity to that instrument and my zeal for its defense?' " 

Suddenly changing his discourse from this form of 
arraignment to an earnest appeal, Vergniaud now asked 
the Assembly for a formal and f orceable sign of its firmness 
and power. '' In short," he says, "^ I implore this Assem- 
bly to call upon the people of France to rise en masse! to 
unite as one man against these insolent foreign despots, 
who dare to threaten a free people with the destruction of 
their Constitution \" 



19G THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

At the close of Vergniaud's speech, which was received 
with cheer upon cheer, he demanded that, ''now the 
Assembly decree. 'La patrie est en Danger ! ' " 

Consequently, on the 11th of July, 1792, the following 
decree was adopted by an almost unanimous vote: 

"Citizens! the country is in danger! The Assembly 
is permanent! Those of the Communes are also declared 
permanent. No public functionary shall leave his post. 
Every citizen capable of bearing arms and having served in 
the National Guards is to consider himself in active ser- 
vice. Every person in possession of arms and ammunition 
must report that fact to the authorities. Those who can 
not be provided with fire-arms will be supplied with pikes. 
Enlistment rolls for the formation of volunteer battalions 
will be opened at all public places, designated by a banner 
bearing the inscription, 'Citoyens! La Patrie est en 
Danger ! ' " 

The formal proclamation of this decree, which had been 
under discussion for several days, created throughout the 
provinces, as well as in Paris, the most intense excitement 
and enthusiasm, and the eagerness with which hundreds 
of thousands of sturdy patriots streamed toward the 
enrollment rendezvous, was the most imposing manifesta- 
tion of devotion to country and love of liberty ever recorded 
in the history of the world. 

This spontaneous uprising was, also, a complete refuta- 
tion of the charge made by the fugitive princes and the 
emigres to the world, that the French people had been 
seduced from their fealty to the King by a small number 
of ambitious demagogues. 

It should be noted in this connection, that the King, 
owing to some unaccountable reason, had notified the 
Assembly three days before the publication of the " Public 
Danger " decree, of the hostile attitude of Prussia, at the 
same time expressing the hope that, in his effort to repel 



DISRUPTION OF THE GIRONDIST MINISTRY. 197 

the enemies of the country and of liberty, lie might rely 
upon the union and courage of all Frenchmen. 

At that precise time, however. Mallet du Pan, the 
King's trusted agent, was at Coblentz insisting, in the name 
of t/ie King, iiipon the imperative necessity of hastening 
the j)ublication of the manifesto '^le had drawn up," as 
he says, " in accordance with the King's instructions." 

JSTow the manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick was but a 
revised copy of that inspired by Louis XVI. to his agent 
Mallet du Pan. 



CHAPTEE XXIL 

THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK'S MANIFESTO-ITS EFFECT IN PARIS— 
'a parallel— STORMING OF THE TUILERIBS AUGUST 10th- 
DBPOSITION AND IMPRISONMENT OF THE KING. 

On the 19fch of July the Emperor left for Frankfort to 
join the King of Prussia at Mayence, in order to come to 
an understanding with him in a final conference, which took 
place on the 21st. Two days afterward Mallet du Pan 
took his departure, and on the 25th appeared the famous 
manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick. 

The following is a verbal translation of the document: 

**Tnose of the French National Guards who have 
fought against the troops of the allied courts, and who 
shall be taken with arms in their hands, shall be punished 
as rebels against their King! 

*'The inhabitants of all cities, towns and villages who 
shall dare to oppose the troops of their Imperial and Koyal 
Majesties, and shall fire at them, either from the open 
field or from windows, doors, or other openings of houses, 
shall be punished summarily according to the rigorous 
laws of war, and their houses demolished or burned. The 
city of Paris and all its inhabitants, without distinction, 
are warned immediately to submit to the King ; to place 
His Majesty in full and complete liberty, and to secure to 
him and to all the royal personages that inviolability 
which the laws of nature and of nations demand 
of subjects toward sovereigns. Their Imperial and 
Eoyal Majesties will make all the members of the 
Legislature, of the departments, of the municipality, and 
of the National Gruard of Paris, as well as Justices of the 

198 



TEE D UKE OF BR UNSWICK'S MANIFESTO. 199 

Peace, and every one concernedj responsible witli their 
lives for all that may happen; will have them tried by 
court-martial, without hope of pardon. Further, their 
said Majesties now declare, on their words as Emperor and 
King, that if the palace of the Tuileries be forced or 
violated, or if there be offered the least violence or outrage 
to the persons of their majesties the King, Queen, and of 
the royal family — moreover, if care be not taken to insure 
their security and liberty, they will execute an exemplary 
and ever-memorable vengeance, and will deliver Paris over 
to military execution and total destruction!" 

"We learn farther from the " Memoirs and Correspon- 
dences of Mallet du Pan,'' that he was somewhat dis- 
pleased with the '^ haughty "' tone of this document. ''It 
\7as not,'' he says, ''what I had a right to expect; certainly 
it contained some of the points / ivas appointed to set 
forth; but the manifesto proposed according to the King's 
words would have dexterously inspired a salutary fear as 
well as confidence." History will care but little about 
Mallet du Pau's explanations, nor about his motives for 
making them; his admissions, however, are of momentous 
weight, as coming from the trusted confidant of the King. 

They establish beyond refutation the fact that the 
suspicions of the people, as to the loyalty of their King, 
were well founded; that he actually and with premedita- 
tion violated his oath and sacred trust as King and Chief 
Commander of the national forces, by conspiring with the 
enemies of France for the invasion of her territory, and 
the overthrow of the Constitution he had sworn to respect 
and protect. 

The effect of this infamous manifesto upon the French 
people, and in the midst of their enrolling excitment, may 
well be imagined. Instead of causing a revolution of 
public sentiment in favor of monarchy, as doubtless was 
anticipated by the King and his advisei'S, it turned the 



200 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

people against the latter and the foreign powers with 
equal fury. 

Was there justification for this feeling of indig- 
nation, disgust and hatred? No patriotic American who 
loves the free institutions of his country, and remembers 
its history, can reply to this question in the negative. 

Let us for an instant suppose the improbable, by way of 
illustration, and draw a parallel between the conditions 
prevailing in France at this time and those of America 
during her struggle for independence. 

France, after a sharp contest with absolutism, had suc- 
ceeded in establishing a Constitutional Monarchy, to which 
the King had given his solemn assent. Assent was given 
by His Majesty and the nobility, however, with this 
mental reservation: to consider the contract binding only 
until a good opportunity offered to break it; to accelerate 
the opportunity they formed a conspiracy. The people 
became suspicious, and made threatening demonstrations, 
causing many of those concerned in the plot to fly from 
the country; the King attempted to follow them, but was 
arrested and brought back; the emigres, to the number of 
twenty thousand, in secret communication with the King, 
succeeded in inducing foreign powers to declare war 
against France, and organized themselves into battalions 
and brigades to join them in the undertaking. Before 
entering upon active hostilities, however, they caused the 
foreign potentates to issue a manifesto, received through a 
secret agent of the King, threatening all Frenchmen who 
presumed to uphold their Constitution and oppose the 
armies of the invaders with death, and the ruin and desola- 
tion of the ancient Capital. 

This was the situation of France at the date of the 
proposed invasion. 

Now look at this picture: In 1776 the American 
Colonists issued their memorable Declaration, and war 



THE D UKE OF BR UNSWICK'S MANIFESTO. 201 

with Great Brjtain was the consequence. America, also, 
had her emigres, styled Tories or Loyalists. The 
"American and British Calendar^' of 1781, gives the 
number of these Loyalists, who joined the Eoyal army, as 
high as 25,000, and Loyalists claimed in public documents, 
published in 1779 and 1783, " that the King had more 
Americans in his service than Congress had, ^^ They were 
engaged in the best-fought battles of the war. The 
"American and British Calendar ^^ of 1782 contains the 
lists of officers of His Majesty's provincial troops, raised 
in North America. Among them we find the names of three 
Brigadiers, to be placed by the side of Benedict Arnold's. 
Those of an Inspector-General, four Deputy Inspector- 
.Generals, a Muster-Master-General and a Paymaster-Gen- 
eral; besides these, about four hundred Colonels, Lieuten- 
ant-Colonels, Majors, Captains and Lieutenants, who held 
rank in the "Prince of Wales' American Volunteers," 
" King's American Eegiment;" "Brigadier-General De 
Lanney's 1st, 2d and 3d Battalion, Eoyal Americans;" 
"New York Volunteers," "Volunteers of Ireland;" 
"Queen's Eangers;" "Orange Eangers;" "Eoyal Ameri- 
can Eegiment;" Loyal Ncav Englanders;" "British 
Legion;" "Maryland Loyalists;" "Pennsylvania Loyal- 
ists, 1st, 2d and 3d Battalion;" New Jersey Volunteers," 
and many other military organizations. 

Now suppose the Tories of New York, New Jersey, 
and other States had dfafted a manifesto similar in form 
to that of the Duke of Brunswick, and had sent it across 
the border to their loyal brethren in arms, who then would 
have induced King George' II. to issue it to the strug- 
gling American patriots, threatening death and the total 
annihilation of the City of New York in case they did not 
recant, lay down their arms, tear the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence into tatters, and humbly acknowledge the 
sovereignty of his Britanic Majesty ! and, suppose further, 



202 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

that instead of 3,000,000 there had been, as in France, 
25,000,000, who had firmly resolved to be free and inde- 
pendent! What would have been the feeling of this 
American people? Indignation? No. Fury? No. They 
would simply have hung every Loyalist within reach, cut 
off his ears, and sent these trophies to King George as a 
fair reply to his manifesto, and the memories of their exe- 
cutioners would be rightfully honored to-day as the stern 
avengers of an insulted people. 

The deep feeling of resentment at this offered outrage 
upon France first vented itself in energetic demands for 
the King's deposition. Numerous petitions to that effect 
from all parts of the country were received by the 
Assembly. The most incisive and most significant of 
these petitions, however, was that from the 48 sections of 
Paris, presented by Mayor Petion himself, on the 3d of 
August. 

As if to add fuel to the excitement, the news reached 
Paris on the same day, that on the 30th of July the allied 
forces, consisting of 60,000 Prussians, with the King com- 
manding in person; 50,000 Austrians, mostly veteransfrom 
the Turkish wars; 6,000 Hessians, and nearly 15, OOO' French 
emigres,, or over 130,000 men, supplied with field and 
garrison artillery, had entered French territory and were 
marching upon Paris. Unless the Assembly took prompt 
action in the matter, and in a formal and legal decree 
declared the throne vacated, a general insurrection and 
consequently violent deposition of the King was now in- 
evitable. One of the most turbulent sections, that of 
the Faubourg Saint Antoine, had, on the same day on 
which Mayor Petion presented his petition, formulated a 
resolution to the effect *^'that, Sunday the 5th, their sec- 
tions in conjunction with those of the Faubourg Saint 
Marceau, at nine in the morning would assemble under 
arms at the Place of the Bastile; that the generaU be beaten 



THE D UKE OF BR UNSWIGK'S MANIFESTO. SOS 

for that purpose; that the 1,500 Marseillais who, upon 
Barbaroux's request, had come all the way from the south- 
ern extremity of France, to aid in an emergency, be invited 
to join the armed sections." 

Upon the representations of Mayor Petion, it was 
finally decided to postpone the demonstration until the 
9th of August, with the ultimatum, howevei", that if, at 
eleven o^clock of the same evening, their demands were 
not acceeded to, the alarm bell should be rung at mid- 
night. 

. In the meantime, ^'The Secret Directory of Insurrec- 
tion," composed of five members, had prepared its plan of 
attack on the Tuileries, and the day designated by the sec- 
tions having passed without action on the part of the 
Assembly, as expected, the alarm bells were sounded. 

At midnight in all parts of the city the dreaded cry, 
''To arms! to arms!" was heard from every side. In a 
short time the whole armed populace of Paris were stream- 
ing through itsstreets. It is difficult to exactly designate 
the principal instigators and organizers of this formidable 
insurrection. Some writers point to Danton as the moving 
spirit, others claim that Petion himself was concerned in it, 
which is not probable. Camille Desmoulins is also men- 
tioned. Certain it is, however, that the movement was not 
spontaneous, but the result of a preconcerted and well-pre- 
pared plan, in which presumably all the most radical mem- 
bers of the Jacobin and the Cordelier clubs were concerned. 
Santerre, Commander of the National Guards of the Fau- 
bourg Saint Antoine, Westerman, an enthusiastic military 
man, Alexander, Commander of the National Guards of the 
Faubourg Saint Marceau, Carin, of Strassbourg, but most 
notably Westerman, were the most active and immediate 
leaders. The theory of M. Lamartine, and of others, that the 
Girondists had actively participated in this insurrection, is 
inconceivable, in view of the well-established fact that 



20k THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

they not only controlled a majority of the members of the 
Assembly, but had it in their power to depose the King 
without resorting to insurrectionary measures. Further- 
more, it appears from the minutes of the Assembly, pub- 
lished in the official ''Moniteur" of July 28, 1792, that an 
extraordinary commission had been appointed on the 26th, 
instructed to examine whether the King had rendered him- 
self guilty of acts of sufficient gravity to justify his depo- 
sition. No report having been received nor requested by 
the Assembly, it may be concluded that they were not in 
sympathy with any hasty action. 

However that may be, there is no doubt but that the 
people, having failed in their efforts to remove in a legal way 
the King, whom they now justly suspected of treachery and 
in secret communication with the invading powers, were 
determined it should be done at all hazards — by force, if 
necessary; and public sympathy was in accord with a 
movement with this end in view. 

At six o^clock on the morning of the 10th, that ever mem- 
orable day, which was to be the last in the reign of Louis 
XVI., the armed masses, in three separate columns, began 
to move toward the chateau of the Tuileries. The cha- 
teau was guarded by from 800 to 900 Swiss, some munic- 
ipal guards and 300 noblemen, who had hastened 
to the assistance of the royal family. There were, 
also, two battalions of the National Guards and a few 
French Guards stationed there, whose sympatliies were, 
however, with the people. At eight o'clock the King was 
informed by M. Eoederer, the Attorney-General, that the 
lives of his family and his own was in the greatest peril, 
and nothing but immediate flight to the Assembly Hall 
could avert a calamity. The Qu een protested, but time was 
pressing, when the King, finally convinced of the desper- 
ate situation, led the way, and the Queen, hesitatingly, 
followed. They were escorted by 300 Swiss Guards, and 




CHARLOTTE GORDAY. 



THE D UKE OF BR TINS WICK'S MANIFESTO. ms 

it was only witli great difficulty and by forcing their way 
through the infuriated mob that they finally reached the 
Legislative Hall. The King thereupon addressed the Kep- 
resentativeSj Vergniaud occupying the President's chair. 
" I have come here," said he, ''in order to prevent a great 
crime. I hope there is no safer place for me than in your 
midst." After a short reply from the President assuring 
him of his safety, the King and his family were assigned 
to the office of the Logographer, and subsequently trans- 
ferred to the Temple — a prison. In leaving the chateau, 
however, the King, in his perplexity, had omitted to issue 
the order to his faithful guards not to offer any resistance 
to the insurgents, and therefore, when these demanded 
admittance their request was refused. Westerman 
endeavored to convince the officer in command of the 
futility of resistance, but without avail; and some stray 
shots having been fired from the guns of the people, the 
Swiss Guards replied with a terrific volley of musketry, 
killing and wounding a large number. 

The fight now began in earnest, and for over an hour 
the booming of canon, the rattle of musketry, and the cries 
and shouts of the infuriated assailants rent the air with a 
deafening tumult of sounds. During the assault which 
followed the slackened fire of the beseiged, few of the 
defenders remained to tell the tale of the day's slaughter. 

Of the poor Swiss, who had fulfilled their duty, as they 
understood it, hardly a hundred escaped. 

Was it a fatality, a warning to free Switzerland to dis- 
continue sending her sons for mere pecuniary gain to gar- 
rison the foreign castles of despotism? 

It was a bloody day which terminated royalty in 
France, for the time being ; it was the only method, how- 
ever, her people could employ to put an effective stop to 
the jf^re' in the rear. 



S06 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH HEVOLVTION. 

The King was formally suspended from his functions, 
and the executive power of France passed from the royal 
palace to the people's representatives in the National 
Legislature. Only apparently, however, for henceforth 
the brutal force of anarchy ruled almost supreme. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

ANARCHISM RAMPANT-THE MASSACRES OP SEPTEMBER. 

The insurrection of the 10th of August had succeeded 
as far as the deposition of the King was concerned, but 
had played havoc with the sovereign will of the people, 
now supposed to be vested in the Legislative Assembly. 

A handful of anarchists, through the captivating 
watch-word of "French unity/' had succeeded in drawing 
the turbulent spirits into the Jacobin Clubs established in 
every part of the country; these they now controlled, and 
together proceeded to call themselves " The People of 
France." The legally elected representatives, to these 
were of no more importance, nor were possessed of more 
power than the deposed King. 

Danton, of the Cordeliers' Club, and Robespierre, of 
the Jacobin Club, as chief anarchists in command, with 
the Marats, the Collot d'Herbois', the Talliens, etc., as 
lieutenants, stood now at the helm of the tottering State. 

These desperate men controlled not only the clubs, but 
what has become so notorious in the history of the Revo- 
lution, the Commune of Paris, composed of 150 members 
chosen equally from the 48 sections — that is from the tur- 
bulent elements of the city. The day after the deposition 
of the King, Robespierre was elected a member of the 
Commune by one of the sections, and on the same day the 
Assembly, by force of circumstances, was compelled to 
appoint Danton Minister of Justice — that is. Prime Minis- 
ter of France. The epoch of violence and of bloodshed 
was thus fairly inaugurated. Robespierre's speech at the 
bar of the Assembly, in the capacity of a special envoy of 

S07 



SOS TEE FOES OF THE FRENCH REYOLVTION. 

the Commune, on the 15th, find Danton's violent order 
against the " suspects," clears away all doubt upon this 
point. An extraordinary commission had been appointed 
by the Assembly to sentence the remaining Swiss defenders 
of the Tuileries. The Commune, thirsting for more 
blood, demanded that the prosecution include all the con- 
spirators of the 10th of August — that is, all those who had 
spoken or acted in defense of the King. This bein'g 
refused by the Assembly, the Commune threatened 
another violent outbreak, and appointed a deputation to 
inform the Assembly of their ultimatum. Robespierre 
was spokesman. " The people rest,'' said he, " but do 
not sleep. They demand the punishment of the guilty, 
and they are right. You (the Assembly) must not give 
them laws contrary to their unanimous sentiments. They 
demand that the guilty be judged by a body of commis- 
sioners — a new judicial tribunal — selected by the sections 
without appeal." The Assembly was amazed at this piece 
of audacity and cruelty. But, terrified at threats of 
another uprising, and well aware that all those not in favor 
or who refused to vote for the sanguinary measure would 
immediately fall victims to the ''' resting mob,'' the decree 
was adopted, but with the hope that its sinister purpose 
would in some providential manner be arrested. 

From that unhappy day the power of the Commune 
increased and its measures in like manner increased in 
violence. Without authority from the Assembly, it issued, 
on August 18th, orders for the arrest and imprisonment of 
the wives and children of the emigi-ants, and, on the 33d, 
ordered the seizure of all their property and person;il 
effects. On the 27th this same tribunal had passed tlie 
sentence of death upon seven ^'suspects," but, in the midst 
of the proceedings, the news came that the Prussians had 
taken Longev}^ which defeat had the effect of perceptibly 
cooling their ardor, and the sentences were suspended. 



ANARCHISM RAMPANT. 209 

Still thirsting for blood, it was agreed between Marat 
and Danton that the extermination of all suspects hold- 
ing extreme royalistic sentiments had come to be a neces- 
sity. Thereupon Danton appeared in the Commune 
and proposed an order for the apprehension or arrest of all 
those who had signed petitions against the punishment of 
recalcitrant priests, and against the decree calling for the 
organization of an army for the protection of the Assem- 
bly and Paris. He further suggested an order for the 
closing of the city gates during, what was soon to begin, 
the domiciliary visits. These visits were to be paid to the 
houses of all suspected of giving aid and comfort to royalty 
or royalists, or harboring sentiments averse to the man- 
ner in which affairs Avere being conducted by the leaders 
of the Commune. 

On the 29th the secret order for the ^'removal" of sus- 
pects was to be carried out. The gates of the city were 
closed, and the work of examination began. 

''Let the reader fancy to himself,'^ says an eye witness, 
''a great metropolis, the streets of which the day 
before were alive with the concourse of carriages, and 
through which citizens were constantly passing and repass- 
ing — let him fancy to himself, on a fine summer evening, 
streets thus populous and animated, suddenly struck with 
the silence of the grave ; everybody retires to the interior 
of his house, trembling for life and property ; all are in 
fearful expectation of the events of a night, in which 
even the efforts of despair are not likely to afford the 
least assistance to any individual. The sole object of the 
domiciliary visits, it is pretended, is to search for arms, 
yet the barriers are shut and guarded with the strictest 
vigilance, and boats are stationed on the river, at regular 
distances, filled with armed men. Everyone supposes 
himself informed against. Everywhere persons and 
property are placed in concealment. Everywhere is 



?A0 THE FOES OF TEE FREKCII RETOL XJTIom 

heard the eouncls of tlie ninffied hammer, with cautious 
knock comjoleting the hiding-place. Roof S;, garrets, sinks, 
chimneys — all are just the same to fear. One man, 
squeezed up behind the wainscot, was nailed back, and 
now seems to be part of the wall ; another is suffocated 
with fear and heat between two mattresses ; a third, 
nailed uj) in a cask, loses all sense of existence through 
the tension of his sinews. A|)prehension is stronger than 
pain. Men tremble, but do not shed tears; the heart 
shudders, the eye is dull, and the breast contracted. 
Women on this occasion display prodigies of tenderness 
and intrepidity. It was by them that most of the men 
were concealed. It was one o'clock in the morning when 
the domiciliary visits began. Patrols consisting of sixty 
pikemen were in every street. The nocturnal tumult of 
so many armed men, the incessant knocking upon doors 
for the people to open ; the crash of those that were 
burst from their hinges ; and the continual uproar and 
revelry which took place throughout the night in all the 
public houses, formed a picture which will never be 
effaced from my memory." 

It is very easy to imagine the opportunities thus offered 
for the gratification of private revenge; for not only the 
nobles, or those who had been connected in one way or 
another with the royal court, were apprehended, but '^all 
who had base enemies capable of revenging themselves 
through a complaint or by denunciation,'' were consigned 
to prison. These drag-nets were under the direct charge 
of a committee chosen from the Commune, whose orders 
were executed before their own eyes. Those apprehended 
— of whom it is stated there were not less than fifteen 
thousand — were taken from their houses to the committee 
room of their section. The members of each section, be- 
ing acquainted with the life and opinions of the persons 
living in their particular districts, were naturally the best 



ANARGEISM RAMPANT. Sll 

judges of the opinions of their neighbors. After examin- 
ation all were sent to the City Hall, from whence they 
were distributed among the fourteen or fifteen prisons of 
Paris. 

On the 30th a joint consultation took place between 
the members of the cabinet and those of the legislative 
comm-ittee for Public Defense, to consider the state of 
public affairs in view of the approach of foreign enemies. 
One of the members having proposed the removal of the 
seat of government to a place further south, Gaudet, Verg- 
niaud and Danton sternly rejected the idea. *^ Paris," 
said Danton, '^ represents France, and to abandon Paris 
to the enemy is to abandon the revolution. We must, 
therefore, maintain ourselves here with all the means in 
our possession, and save ourselves Avith audacity. There 
is known to be a royal directory in Paris who are in cor- 
respondence with the officers of the Prussian army. We 
can not tell where they meet nor who they are; but, in 
order to discover and prevent their treasonable plottings, 
we must — we must terrorize all royalists." 

These last words Danton accompanied with a gesture 
which horrified the committee; it v/as not interpreted, 
however, as a threat to cut the throats of the unfortunate 
suspects arrested the night before. That was, however,, 
just what was meant. The details had all been arranged 
by the sanguinary Triumvirate — Danton, Robespierre, and 
Marat. 

On the 1st of September news was received that Ver- 
dun, one of the strong fortresses in the north of France, 
was invested by the enemy. It was not true, however, the 
rumor being set afloat doubtless for a purpose — to increase 
public excitement. Danton immediately after appeared 
in the Commune and advocated the adoption of a decree, 
calling for the ringing of alarm bells, the firing of can- 
non, and the assembling of all arms-bearing citizens to the 



S12 TEE FOES OF TEE FRENCE REVOLVTION. 

Champ de Mars the following day, where they were to 
remain encamped until the day after, when they would 
march to Verdun. In support of his lying decree, Danton 
said: 

'^The tocsin, which will be sounded, will not be the 
signal of alarm, but the signal of an assault to be made 
upon the enemies of the country. To be victorious, 
gentlemen, we must have audacity! Again I repeat, 
audacity! Always audacity, and France will be saved \" 

The Assembly was deceived by Danton^s ^''audacity." 
Average human nature was not able to conceive the possi- 
bility of a man occupying the position of Minister of 
Justice deliberately planning the wholesale butchery of 
thousands upon thousands of defenseless prisoners. The 
eyes of the Assembly were turned toward Verdun, which 
they believed invaded, and was then perhaps taken by 
Prussian troops ; consequently Danton^s apparent candid 
appeal in support of his cruel decree, not being understood 
was received by the Assembly with enthusiasm and brought 
the noble Vergniaud to his feet, who electrified his col- 
leagues with one of his eloquent outbursts of patriotic fervor, 
and in consequence the decree was adopted. But sinister 
rumors were afloat in the cafes and upon the streets of 
Paris; it was felt that some frightful catastrophe was upon 
the point of taking place. It became noised about that 
some of the prisoners had been set at large without trial 
by Danton, Eobespierre, Marat, Tallien, and others, those 
whom they wished to save. Early on the morning of the 
2d of September it was observed that the women and chil- 
dren imprisoned in the Abbey — an old convent — were set 
at liberty; that the turnkey brought the noon meal earlier 
than usual, and also that he had removed all the knives 
from the cells of the prisoners. 

At about the same time the section of the Faubourg 
Poissonniere adopted a resolution, evidently inspired from 




MARIE AHTOIHETTE OH TRIAL. 



ANARCHISM RAMPANT. 21S 

a higher source, "that the State prisoners actually 
detained in the prisons of Paris and Orleans be put to 
death previous to the departure of the citizens to the 
frontiers of Verdun.'^ This horrible resolution was com- 
municated to members of other sections, and at two in the 
afternoon the butchery began with the massacre of twenty- 
four priests while on their way to the prison. Maillard, 
whom we have seen at the head of the woman's procession 
marching to Versailles, acted as judge, assisted by a 
number of *' killers/' possessed of lists of prisoners 
which had been previously revised by Minister Danton. 
One after another of the unfortunates were brought face 
to face with this judge, who, without check save his own 
supreme will, in a few minutes decided their fate. They 
were asked but few questions. If found not guilty, 
Maillard raised the point of his sword, and the prisoner 
was set at large; if guilty, its point was lowered and the 
accused ordered to be taken back to prison, which signified 
death, for at the door the doomed victim fell upon the 
picks and swords of the "" killers" especially appointed and 
paid for their bloody work. Similar sanguinary proceed- 
ings were instituted in all the other prisons of the city, 
and the assassinations did not cease until the prisons were 
empty. Madame de Lamballe, the personal confidant 
and friend of the Queen, was murdered on that terrible 
day, her head stuck on a pike and exhibited to the horror- 
stricken Queen at the windows of the Temple. The last 
victim fell on the 6th of September; so that it may be said 
for five days the prisons of Paris were transformed into 
butcher-pens. Orleans, Versailles, and other cities were 
the scene of similar atrocities. Thus was Danton's pro- 
gramme executed to the letter. 

Writers of the Revolution have attempted to smooth 
over these barbarous assassinations with the excuse that 
the approach of the Prussians, and the continued conspir- 



2U THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

ing in the circles of tlie nobility, had excited the people 
of Paris to a state of uncontrollable ferocity. These efforts 
will prove unavailing when the fact is considered that the 
. French people were not a party to these atrocious deeds. 
A mere handful of men with audacity and power pre- 
meditated and planned them. Danton, Marat, Camille 
Desmoulins, CoUot d^Herbois, Barrere, Tallien, Eobes- 
pierre, Billaud-Varennes, and a few others of the Com- 
mittee of Surveillance, posterity must hold as authors of 
the *' September Horror. '^ Their instruments were hired 
gangs of robbers, thugs and murderers, with which Paris 
had become infested during her two years of disorder. 

"The small number of those who perpetrated these mur- 
ders, under the eyes of the Legislature,'' says Allison, "is 
one of the most instructive facts in the history of revolu- 
tions. The number actually engaged in the massacres 
did not exceed 300, and but twice as many more wit- 
nessed and encouraged their proceedings; yet, this 
handful of men governed Paris, and France, with a 
despotism which 300,000 armed warriors afterwards strove 
in vain to effect. The immense majority of the well dis- 
posed citizens, divided in opinion, irresolute in conduct, 
and dispersed in various quarters, were incapable of arrest- 
ing the progress of the assassinations. It is not less 
worthy of observation that these atrocities took place in 
the heart of a city where above 50,000 men were enrolled 
in the National Guard, and had arms in their hands \" 

The number actually slain has never been fully ascer- 
tained, but variously estimated at from five to eight thou- 
sand. The remains of the victims were thrown into 
trenches previously prepared by the Municipality, and 
subsequently their bones put up in piles in the catacombs 
of Paris. On the same 2d of September, when these 
butcheries were inaugurated in the capital, "the Com- 
mittee of Surveillance/' with Dantonian audacity, addressed 



ANARCHISM RAMPANT. 215' 

the following circular to all the Communes of France, in 
which they endeavored to explain the necessity of tlitir 
barbarous action, and invite them to follow their example: 

"Brethren and friends. — An infamous plot, hatched 
by the courts to murder the patriots of France — a plot in 
v/hich a great number of the ISTational Assembly are 
implicated — having on the 9th of last month, reduced the 
Commune of Paris to the cruel necessity of employing 
the power of the people to save the nation, it has not neg- 
lected anything to deserve well of the country, etc. 

" Proud of enjoying to the fullest measure the confi- 
dence of the nation, and which it will strive to deserve more 
and more, and determined to perish for the public v/el- 
fare, it will not boast of having done its duly until it shall 
have obtained your approbation and all the Departments 
have sanctioned its measures for the public weal. 

"Apprized that barbarous hordes are advancing against 
it, the Commune of Paris hastens to inform its brethren 
in all the Departments, that part of the ferocious conspir- 
ators confined in the prisons have been put to death by 
the people — acts of justice which appeared to them 
indispensable in order to impress the legions of traitors, 
which encompassed them as a wall, at the moment when 
they Avere about to march against the enemy. 

" No doubt the Nation, after a long series of conspiracies, 
which have brought it to the brink of the abyss, will 
eagerly adopt this useful a.nd necessary expedient; and all 
the French will say like the Parisians: 'We are marching 
against the enemy, and we v/ill not leave behind us brig- 
ands to murder our wives and children. ■'^^ This infamous 
circular was signed by seven members of the committee, 
editor Marat being one of them, and undoubtedly the one 
who penned the document. 

Thenceforth, the Commune considered itself "the 
power" in the State; it not only liad terrorized all it§ 



'216 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

opponents in PariSj but had successfully clieckmated the 
JNTational Assembly in its effort to subject the Commune 
to its decrees. Its commissioners were sent to the neigh- 
boring departments to apprehend so-called ^'suspects," 
and to seize upon silverware and valuables of every descrip- 
tion. These acts of lawlessless on the part' of the Com- 
mune soon found imitators among the gangs of male- 
factors, who had executed their orders of the 2d of 
September. 

On the 14th, Minister Eoland reported to the Assem- 
bly an account of the daily robberies committed in the 
streets of Paris; of peasants coming to the city who were 
attacked in broad day-light and relieved of their money, 
watches and jewelry, and, also, that house-breaking was 
of daily occurrence. On the 17th the Garde-meuhle 
(National store-rooms) were broken into, and the diamonds 
and other jewels, valued at millions, were taken away. 
Such was the state of Paris at the time the term of the 
Legislative Assembly was about to expire. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



THE BATTLE OF VALMY. 



Before taking leave of this assemblage of well-mean- 
ing but timorous men^ it is well to understand exactly 
where to place the responsibility of the violent form the 
Revolution had now assumed. 

M. Guadefc, the nephew of the great Girondist of that 
name, in his history of the eminent men of the Gironde, 
charges the Constitution of 1791 with the subsequent 
disorders and violences. If M. Guadet wished to convey 
the impression that the Assembly had not been clothed 
with distinctive powers for unforeseen eventualities, he 
was probably correct; this absence of specific constitu- 
tional provisions does not excuse the Assembly, however, 
for having failed to perform the solemn duty of proclaim- 
ing the throne vacated, after it had been actually aban- 
doned by its rightful incumbent. From the moment 
Louis XVI. departed from the Tuileries, either to escape 
to foreign lands, or, with hostile intent sought to reach 
the camp of General Bouille, the Legislative Assembly was 
the only legally constituted, supreme authority in exist- 
ance to which the people of France could look for a 
solution of the problem. The Assembly failed in the 
hour of greatest emergency to resjoond to this confi- 
dence, and failed to fulfil its sacred duty, by not inform- 
ing the Nation of the actual status of affairs, to wit: 
"that the French throne has been vacated by its incum- 
bent." But by taking a step entirely outside of the 
Constitution, by assuming unconferred authority, and 
in direct opposition to the expressed wishes of the French 

^17 



218 THE FOES OF THE FREJSCII DEVOLUTION. 

people^, the Assembly replaced the deserter upon the 
throne, and thus forced the issue into the hands of the 
Robespierres, the Dantons and the Marats. 

The Constitution of 1791 guaranteed to the French 
people all the liberties they desired, and the elimination 
of the few provisions referring to royalty was all that was 
necessary for the peaceful establishment of the Rejoublic 
upon a firm basis. 

The 20th of September, 1792, is a date chronicling 
two important events in the Revolution; the one transpiring 
in Paris, the other in the field. The first, the meeting of 
the newly elected Deputies to the National Convention, 
assembled at the Tuileries and elected Petion, president, 
Brissot, Condorcet, Vergniaud, Ra,baut St. Etienne, La- 
source and Camus, secretaries, giving the Girondist party 
the organization, and the controlling influence in the con- 
vention. The other event of great influence upon the 
future destiny of France, was the successful repulse by 
General Kellermann, under Dumouriez, of the Prussians at 
Valmy, known in history as the " Cannonade of Valmy." 

The reader will remember that in the early part of July, 
the French army was divided into three divisions; that of 
the North, commanded by Luckner: the center under 
Lafayette, and the south, under Montesquieu. Dumouriez, 
after resigning his seat in the Cabinet was assigned to 
the army of the North, but General Luckner, imbued with 
the spirit of Lafayette, and suspecting Dumouriez of Jac- 
obin sympathies sent him to an unimportant camp near 
Maulde, where he intrenched himself and with his small 
contingent of troops occasionally engaged similar detach- 
ments of the enemy. 

Lafayette, in the hope of being able to better serve the 
King, arranged with Luckner for an exchange of com- 
mands, by which Luckner was to go to Metz and Lafa- 
yette to Sedan, Dumouriez had been ordered with h\s 



THE BATTLE OF VALMY. i:id 

small coinmaud to follow Luckncr to Metz, but was sud- 
denly confronted by the enemy who threatened an attack. 
After the insurrection of the 10th of August Lafayette's 
correspondence with the King, in which he proposed apian 
for a second attempt at flight, having come to light, he 
was accused of treason, and three commissioners were sent 
to Sedan to arrest and bring him back to Paris. These 
emissaries were seized and placed in confinement. This 
action exasperated the Assembly, and on the 19th of 
August, the Assembly declared Lafayette a traitor to the 
country, and despatched other commissioners to felease 
their predecessors and to apprehend the General. Dum- 
ouriez having declared himself in favor of the insurrection 
of the 10th of August, and the defection beginning to 
permeate Lafayette's own troops, the only alternative left 
him was sudden flight across the borders, or death upon 
the scaffold; he chose the former, and on the 20th, 
accompanied by a few servants he left his camp, and 
reached the Austrian lines on the following day. Here, 
contrary to all rules of war he was treated as a criminal, 
and detained for several years in an Austrian prison. This 
is not the place to criticise or apologize for Lafayette's 
conduct. Whatever his mistakes may have been, impar- 
tial history accords him the strictest honesty of intention, 
with virtues far out-weighing his faults. 

Upon the report of the Commissioners, Dumouriez 
was placed in chief command of the three armies by the 
Assembly. The situation was far from being hojjeful. 
An army numbering 120,000 men spread over a territory 
of several hundred miles, composed to a great extent of 
raw recruits, would not be able to resist a formidable 
attack at any special point on the line. 

The army of the Allies, on the other hand, numbered 
138,000 men, mostly veterans of active service, which 
could be concentrated in a short time upon a given point 



SlSO THE FOES OF THE FRENCH RE VOL TJTION. 

of attack. The enemy, with the advantage at the out- 
set, and conscious of their superiority, were almost cer- 
tain of victory, 

Early in August the forward movement begun. The 
French army were illy disposed in the first place to with- 
stand an attack from such a mass of forces. Lafayette^s 
old army, 23,000 strong, disorganized by the departure of 
its general, and weakened by its uncertainty of senti- 
ment, was camped, as before stated, at Sedan. Luckner's 
command, composed of 20,000 men, occupied Metz, and, 
the same as the others, had just received a new General, 
namely, Kellermann (the father of the celebrated Keller- 
mann whose glorious charge decided the battle of 
Marengo). The Assembly, dissatisfied with Luckner, 
nevertheless had resolved not to dismiss him ; but in 
transferring his command to Kellermann assigned to him 
the duty of organizing a new army of reserve. Custine, 
v/ith 15,000 men, occupied Landau, and Biron, with 30,- 
000, was posted in Alsace. The only troops, therefore, 
directly available to oppose the invading armies from the 
North were the 23,000 men of Lafayette's former com- 
mand and Kellermann's 20,000 at Metz. We have seen 
that the Prussians had .advanced as far as Longwy and 
that its gates were opened to them, on the 22d. After 
taking Longwy, they advanced upon Verdun, which it 
Avill be remembered furnished to Danton and his fanatical 
co-workers, the opportunity to incite fear and irritation 
so that the domiciliary visits and the indiscrimnate 
slaughter of the suspects might not be interfered with. 

After the capture of Verdun on the 2d of September 
the enemy remained inactive, giving Dumouriez time to 
enter the almost impenetrable foi'est of Argonne, thus 
placing himself between the Prussians and Paris. 

One of the passes not having been sufficiently guarded, 
it was attacked and carried by the Prussians when 



THE BATTLE OF VALMT. S21 

DumonrieJi was compelled to fall back npon a new line of 
defense. The reverses of the French army had not 
been fatal, but tlieir frequency had seriously affected the, 
"morale " of the new levies, and unless their spirits could be 
revived by some successful battles, the advance upon Paris 
might have turned out a ^'military promenade/' as the 
King of Prussia himself had coolly prophesied. This 
favorable turn came at Valmy on the 20th of September, 
1792. 

M. Thiers thus describes this first successful struggle 
of the French volunteer soldiers against the battle-scarred 
veterans of Prussia. 

" It was now noon. A thick fog which had enveloped 
the two armies had cleared off, and each had a distinct 
view of the oiher. Our young soldiers now beheld the 
Prussians advancing in three columns, with the assurance 
of veteran troops habituated to warfare. It was the first 
time they had found themselves, to the number of a 
hundred thousand men, on the field of battle; they were 
about to cross bayonets, they yet knew not themselves — 
much less the enemy; they looked one towards the others 
with uneasiness, Kellermann went into the trenches, dis- 
posed his troops in columns, with a battalion in front, and 
ordered them, when the Prussians were at a certain dis- 
tance, not to wait for their attack bat to run forward and 
meet them with the bayonet. Then raising his voice, he 
cried, Vive la Nation! His men 'might be brave or 
cowards; the cry of Vive la Nation! however, roused their 
courage, and our young soldiers, catching the spirit of 
their Commander, marched on, shouting Vive la Nation! 
The astonished Prussians did not break up in disorder, 
but they halted in their onward course, and the Duke 
of Brunswick, perceiving the elan of the French troops, 
and apprehensive of a disastrous result, ordered a retro- 
grade m.ovement only to return to a second attack later in 



SSS THE FOES OF THE FRENCtI HE VOL VllON. 

the afternoon. This renewed effort to break the French 
Imes being again repulsed, the Duke, for the time being, 
withdrew his forces, and, now, as if by enchantment, the 
whole aspect of the war was changed." The emigres, 
who had represented to the Duke that the French army 
was composed of tailors and cobblers, who would not stand 
fire, were roundly abused, and they were notified that 
henceforth their advice in military matters would not be 
required. 




POUQUIER TIHYILLE. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. 



The people of France now began to nurse buoyant 
hopes for the future. The check the Prussian invaders 
had received at Valmy gave them the assurance that 
their patriotic sons were eminently able to maintain 
the Nation's territorial integrity, while at home, the 
prospect of a government to be established by the 
National Convention hourly grew brighter. 

The elements com]30sing this body justified this expec- 
tation. Of the seven hundred and fifty members, two 
thirds were of the bourgeois class, honest and industrious 
citizens in sympathy with the movement which had de- 
posed the King. Strictly speaking, they were not Giron- 
dists and much' less the followers of Marat and his teach- 
ings. From the former, they naturally held aloof, owing 
to their intellectual inferiority, and from the latter from 
feelings of horror, aroused through a knowledge of their 
complicity in the September assassinations. All, however, 
believed themselves unanimously in favor of a republican 
form of government and in the eternal abolition of royalty. 
These Deputies formed the Centre of the convention, the 
Girondists occupying the Right, and the Extremists, to the 
number of about one hundred, mostly f 7' om Paris, com- 
posed the Left, or the '^Mountain,'" so called on account 
of their elevated seats. Vergniaud, Brissot, Guadet, Gen- 
sonne, etc., were the leaders of the Girondists, Danton, 
Robespierre and Marat, those of the Left. Politically, the 
Girondists may be said to have had democratic opinions 
of the Jeffersonian school. The following is the picture 

223 



2U THE FOES OF THE FRENCH BEVOLVTlON. 

of the two sides of tliis convention, as drawn by Garat, a 
most critical observer of the events of the Kevolution. 

*'0n the right of the convention, I saw both of these 
characteristics — that sentiment which refuses to be guided 
by any man^s opinion unless that man speaks in the 
name of his country, and that greater republicanism, 
which has discovered what are the springs of action in the 
organization called society, and how the people composing 
it, can be united in a great republic; how equality, and at 
the same time submission to the magistrates will result in 
order and happiness; a government whose power shall 
always be absolute over individuals and over the multitude, 
and always submissive to the Nation and executive power; 
whose show and forms of useful splendor shall always 
awaken ideas of the splendor of the Eepublic, and never 
ideas of the greatness of the person. 

" On the same side, I beheld seated the men best ac- 
quainted with those doctrines of political economy, which 
teach how to open and enlarge all the channels of private 
and of national wealth; howto combine the public revenue 
with the precise portions due it from the fortune of every 
citizen; how to create new sources for the increase cf 
private fortunes; how to foster and have unsliackled all 
branches of industry, without favoring a7iy ; how to regard 
those great properties, not as bottomless lakes which 
absorb and retain all the waters poured into- their bosoms, 
but as reservoirs, necessary f or multijDlying and nourishing 
the germs ol universal fecundity. These were the Giron- 
dists." 

But in Garat's description of the Extremists, the fact 
should not be concealed, that at the time the September 
massacres still rankled in the minds of all honorable men. 

" On turning my eyes from the right side to the left, 
and raising them to the ^mountain,' what a contrast 
struck me! There I sav/ a man agitating liimself Avith all 



THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. 2^5 

possible emotions, whose face, a copper-yellow hue, made 
him look as if he had issued from the blood-stained caves 
of cannibals, or from the scorching threshold of hell — a 
man whom, by his conv,ulsive, abrupt and unequal gait, 
3"ou recognized one of those murderers who had escaped 
from the executioner but not from the furies, and who 
seemed desirous of annihilating the human race, to spare 
themselves the drerd which the sight of every man excites 
in them. Under despotism, which he had not covered 
Avith blood as he had liberty, this man had cherished the 
ambition of producing a revolution in the sciences; and 
he had attacked in systems more daring than ingenious, 
the greatest discoveries of modern times and of the 
human mind. His eyes, roving through the histories of 
ages, had dwelt upon the lives of four or five great exter- 
minators, who converted cities into deserts for the pur- 
pose of repeopling those deserts with a race formed in 
their own image or in that of tigers; this was all that 
he had retained of the annals of nations; all that he knew 
and cared to imitate. From an instinct resembling that 
of ravenous beasts rather than from any deep vein of per- 
versity, he had tried to see into how many follies and 
crimes it is possible to lead an immense people, whose 
religious and political chains have just been broken. This 
is the idea which dictated all his writings, all his words, 
all his actions. 

" Beside him were seated men who could not themselves 
have conceived of such atrocities as had been committed, 
but who, being carried along with him, had reached a 
height which made them dizzy, and although they aohorred 
Marat they did not abhor making use of him. They 
used him -to their own advantage; they put him in their van. 
As the horror of this man was everywhere, so one fancied 
he perceived him everywhere; one almost imagined that 
he was the whole mountain, or that the v^-Iiolo incuntain 



SS6 TEE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

was he. Among the leaders, in fact, were several who 
found no other fault with the misdeeds of Marat than that 
they were too undisguised. 

But among these leaders — and here nothing but truth 
makes me differ in opinion from many worthy men — 
among these leaders themselves were a great number of 
persons who, connected with others by events much more 
than by their sentiments, turned their eyes and their 
regrets toward humanity and wisdom, who would have had 
many virtues, and might have rendered many services at 
the moment when they should have begun to be thought 
capable of them. To the Mountain repaired, as to mili- 
tary posts, those who had much passion for liberty and 
little theory; those who supposed equality was threatened; 
those who, elected in hamlets and in the workshops, could 
not recognize a republican in any other costume than that 
which they themselves wore; those who, entering for the 
first time upon a public career, had to signalize that impet- 
uosity and violence in which the glory of almost every great 
revolutionist began; those who, still young and better 
qualified to serve the Republic in the field than in its 
legislative hall, having seen the Republic start into exist- 
ence amid the crash of thunder, conceived it was with the 
crash of thunder that it ought to maintain itself and pro- 
mulgate its decrees. On this side, also, several of those 
deputies sought an asylum rather than a seat, who, hav- 
ing been reared in the proscribed castes of the nobility 
and the priesthood, though always pure, were always lia- 
ble to suspicion, and fled to the top of the mountain to 
dispute the charge of not attaining the hight of prin- 
ciples. Thither, also, repaired, to feed their suspicions 
and to live among phantoms, those austere and melancholy 
characters who, having too frequently seen falsehood 
united with politeness, believe in virtue only when it is 
gloomy, and in liberty when it is furious. There ranged 



THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. 2S7 

themselves some of those minds who had borrowed from 
the exact sciences stiffness atthe same time rectitude; who, 
prond of possessing knowledge immediately applicable to 
the mechanical art, were glad to separate themselves, in 
places as well as by their disdain, from those scholars, those 
philosophers, whose acquirements are not so suddenly ben- 
eficial to the weaver, or to the smith, and do not reach 
individuals until they have enlightened society in general. 
There, lastly, those who liked to vote, whatever might be 
in other respects their sentiments and their talents ; who, 
from the springs of their character being too tightly wound 
up, were disposed to go beyond rather than to fall short 
of the limit that it was necessary to set to revolutionary 
energy and enthusiam. 

''Such was the idea which I formed of the elements of 
the two sides of the National Convention. 

"■ Upon these dissimilar characters composing the two 
antagonistic parties devolved the task of establishing a 
government for the anxious people of France. Already 
blood had been shed — shed without the form of law or 
authority — and a large majority of the Convention now 
demanded the punishment of these murderers and their 
accessories.^' 

The Marats were in a hopeless minority, not only in 
the Convention but in the country, and to successfully 
compete with their antagonists it was necessary to create 
public hostility against the majority. 

The plan which suggested itself to the fertile brain of 
Danton was to charge the Girondists with favoring the 
American system of government for France. The very 
suggestion of disturbing the unity of the country was 
obnoxious to the mass of Frenchmen, they considering 
''unity "one of the great achievements of the Eevolution; 
to their understanding the advocacy of the federal system 
was the advocacy of the dismemberment of France. M. 



228 TEE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

Michelet, M. Thiers, and other historians of the Eevolution, 
deny that such a plan was ever earnestly contemplated by 
the Grirondists. It is well established, however, that in 
view of its beneficent application in the United States, 
some of the far-seeing Girondists, understanding the 
barriers the federative system would form against the 
arrogance and assumption of the Paris Commune, hoped 
for its establishment in France, but its advocacy was 
impracticable and even dangerous, owing to the almost 
universal sentiment prevailing against it. With the 
experience of the Americans under this system freshly 
before them, this short-sightedness of the French is quite 
inexplainable. We can not see why the peaceful federa- 
tion of the provinces of Normandy, Languedoc, Picardy, 
Champagne, Burgundy and the thirty odd more provinces, 
would have dismembered France any more than the 
federation of the American colonies of the Carolinas, 
Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and those of New 
England could have prevented the establishment of the 
indivisable North American Eepublic. Outwardly, the 
American Eepublic is compactness itself. As such it has 
withstood foreign wars and a great civil war. A central- 
ized American Eepublic, possibly, might have proven a 
more formidable antagonist,but it is easy of demonstration 
that, if left to its own resources, without the support of 
the moral and military power of the State unities, the 
Eepublic must have been disrupted in the late Southern 
Eebellion. 

Centralized France could oppose no legal barrier to the 
spread of Jacobinism in the provinces. Her representa- 
tives, through the tyrannical sway of the Commune of 
Paris — which Danton called France — were so terrorized 
that the eighty-two departments of France were bound 
hand and foot and delivered to the despotism of mob rule 
ere the country was aware of its chains. 



TEE NATIONAL CONVENTION. 229 

There is no doubt but that the terrible calamities 
which afflicted France immediately after the deposition of 
the King could have been averted by the adoption of the 
federative system. 

The argument that, in many of the provinces, the 
priests, through religious fanaticism, were fostering an 
anti-republican sentiment, which agitation could only be 
suppressed by a powerful centralized government, might 
have been met by the statement that these very armed 
peasants were at first among the most enthusiastic friends 
of the revolution of 1789, and were represented by thou- 
sands of their most influential citizens and agricultural 
inhabitants of the provinces. Had the King been allowed 
to peaceably leave the country when he made the attempt, 
the refractory ecclesiastics would thus have been deprived 
of their chief argument against the establishment of a 
republic, federal or centralized. 

Compare this religious schism in France to the slave- 
holder's schism in the United States, where almost one- 
third of all the States revolted against the Federal Union, 
and it is plainly appearent that their argument against the 
strength of the federative system has no foundation in 
fact. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



THE GIRONDIST SUPREMACY. 



The day following the meeting of the Convention that 
elected Petion its President, abolished royalty, and estab- 
lished the Republic, Danton, wrth an air of self-abnega- 
tion, resigned the Ministry of Justice. Self-preservation, 
however, and the safety of his colleagues of the Mountain 
were probabjy the motives for this step. The two decrees 
that were immediately adopted by the Convention were, 
first, that of permitting the selection of judges outside of 
the legal profession, and, second, to extend the elective 
franchise to all Frenchmen having attained the age of 
twenty-one, and of good repute, to equality in the dis- 
charge of all public functions. The popular rejoicings 
over these decrees were, however, soon interrupted by the 
struggle which was about to begin between the Mountain 
and the Girondists. 

On the 2oth of September, the Deputies Buzot and 
Vergniaud prevailed upon the Convention to appoint a 
special committee for the preparation of a law against the 
instigators of disorder and murder, and for the organiza- 
tion of a Departmental Guard. 

This was a direct blow at the Paris Commune, and an 
open threat to bring the instigators of the September 
massacres to the bar of justice, and with the assistance of 
a Departmental Guard, if necessary. The adoption of the 
decree in its present form was paramount to a sentence of 
death against Danton, Editor Marat, Robespierre, and their 
accomplices of the Commune. 

The struggle against its passage was, therefore, one of 

, " ■ 230 



TEE GIRONDIST SUPREMACY. 231 

desperation, and almost the entire Convention became 
involved in its discussion. 

In the evening the question being first brought 
before the Jacobin Club, the measure was denounced in 
unmeasured terms, and the Girondist representatives 
branded as traitors and disunionists. On the 2Gth of Sep- 
tember Deputy Lasource informed the Convention that 
two-thirds of its members had been denounced as enemies 
of the Ee|)ublic. 

" I fear," he continued, ''the despotism of Paris. I 
know of men who on the day of the September massacre des- 
ignated eight representatives, who were to share the fate 
of those who were assassinated.'^ The Convention became 
agitated, whereupon, one of the members, named Robes- 
pierre as the chief instigator of the cabal. He was fol- 
lowed by Buzot and Barbaroux, who charged Robespierre 
with aspiring to the dictatorship of France. Cambon said 
handbills had been circulated in which the establishment 
of a triumvirate, composed of Robespierre, Danton and 
Marat, had been recommended. Vergniaud said a circu- 
lar had been sent by the Paris Commune to the country 
Communes recommending the co^icew^ra^f^'ow and relinquish- 
ment of all governmental poioers to the Paris muni cip alii y 
around which the Gommujies of France were expected to 
rally. Another member read an extract from one of 
Marat's editorials, in which he had said: "Expect noth- 
ing more of this Convention; you are betrayed ! Fifty 
years of royalty is your future ! Nothing can save you but 
a dictator, a patriot, a statesman" (meaning Robespierre). 

The issue between the Commune and the Convention 
was thus fairly raised. It was to be either a cowardly 
surrender by the latter of all its hopes for France to a self- 
constituted, arrogant faction at the capital, or the asser- 
tion of its sovereignty by taking measures to suppress the 
rampant anarchism of the Commune. 



232 TEE FOES OF THE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 

The Convention seemed determined to assert its 
authority. In order to proceed, however, in a legal man- 
ner, a request to the Minister of the Interior was decreed, 
asking him to inform the Convention of the obstacles, if 
any existed at the capital, to the enforcement of the laws, 
and to suggest such remedies as he deemed necessary. 

In his reply, submitted on the 29th, Minister Roland 
said: , 

"The fall of royalty on the 10th of August brought 
into existence a new order of things. A temporary organ- 
ization of the municipal powers of Paris was established. 
This Commune was necessary, and though it has its uses, 
it also has its defects. These should be remedied. At 
the time of its creation a foreign invasion was threatening 
the country. Indignation and consternation prevailed, 
and this state of feeling was seized upon by the unstable 
and dissatisfied to foment trouble. The Commune 
created by the Revolution, sustained by its most turbulent 
spirits, executed the laws or prevented their execution at 
its supreme will and pleasure. The Commune had for- 
gotten that all revolutionary power should be temporary, 
and that submission to the legally constituted authorities 
is the only safeguard to true liberty." After citing 
numerous exam^ples of arbitrary seizures of property, 
arrests, and the summary execution of individuals, Min- 
ister Roland continued: 

"The idea of the people^s sovereignty, misapplied, has 
the effect of familiarizing a small part of the people with 
insurrectionary habits. The view, that insurrection is a 
sacred duty against oppression, is abandoned, and rev-olt 
against true liberty is sanctified. This spirit of revolt, 
nursed by fault-finders, strengthened by the calumnies of 
unprincipled demagogues, is permeating society in every 
form. It has entered the sections of the Communes, and 
established a tyranny which has suppressed the free 




COLLOT D'HERBOIS. 



THE GIRONDIST SUPREMACY. 233 

expression of sound sense; has supplanted argument with 
noise; as a consequence, the weak and timid are driven to 
the seclusion of their homes. To those remaining, might 
seems right; passion, energy, and savage ferocity, the 
expression of the popular will. 

''The relations between the Commune and the conven- 
tion having been confounded, the Commune has lost sight 
of its limits. In giving you the detailed facts of their 
arbitrary power, I have indicated to you its causes. They 
are, perhaps, the necessary consequences of a great move- 
ment, and a terrible Eevolution with its disorganizing ten- 
dencies, developing both noble sentiments and atrocious 
passions. 

" The weakness of the Legislative Assembly, just pre- 
ceding you, the delay on the part of this Convention to 
adopt rigorous measures, are the primal and salient causes 
of this communal assumption of power, which will be i^er- 
petuated with the same impunity that the provocation to 
murder is now enjoying." 

The report was ordered printed and distributed through- 
out the provinces. 

Robespierre objected, but being interrupted, again pro- 
tested, saying, ''The report misrepresents the men who 
have deserved well of the country." 

Again interrupted, he exclaimed, threateningly: 

"There's not one here who dares accuse me to my face!" 

"I dare!" cries Louvet. 

" So do I," shout together Rebeccqui and Barbaroux. 

"Continual assaults are made upon this convention;" 
said Louvet ascending the tribune. "In the press, in all 
public places; everyv/here it is reviled and open insur- 
rection urged against it, you must come out of this strug- 
gle victorious or humiliated; you must render an account 
to France, why it is that you tolerate in your midst, (point- 
ing to editor Marat) a man whom the public cannot name 



23 J^ TEE FOES OF TEE FRENCE REVOLUTION. 

but with horror; yoii must, by solemn decree declare his 
innocence, or purge yourself of his presence. You must 
take measures against this disorganizing Commune^ which 
is prolonging its usurpation of authority, and against the 
agitators of the clubs and of the press." Turning and 
facing Eobespierre, he boldly accused him and his faction 
of attacking, at the sessions of the Jacobin Club, the 
most worthy patriots of the convention; he denounced 
him as an egotist who continually reviled others, while he 
showered the highest eulogies upon himself. He then 
charged Robespierre with claiming for himself and his fac- 
tion the credit of the 10th of August (driving the King 
from the throne). '^But,'^ he added vehemently, '^the 
credit of the 2d of September, you barbarous conspirators, 
is yours! You can glorify in that event, and forever claim 
for yourselves the title, ' Patriots of the 2d of Septem- 
ber! ' 

*'I accuse you, Robespierre, individually, of having 
calumniated the purest patriots in France, I affirm, that 
the honor of a citizen, and much less the honor of a 
representative of the people, is not in you ! I accuse you 
of having maligned these patriots during the days of that 
horrible week in September, when your slander was 
almost fatal proscription ! I accuse you of having terror- 
ized by every means in your power, the Electoral Assem- 
bly of Paris, and lastly, of striving to seize the supreme 
power of France." 

Danton, apprehensive of his own safety should Robes- 
pierre be indicted, hastened to the rescue and appealed to 
the members to heal their wounds and stop their dissen- 
sions; and in order to turn the fire of the Convention from 
the misdeeds of the triumvirate upon the Girondists, the 
supposed advocates of the federative system — he said : 

*' Another apprehension widely prevails, which must be 
dispelled. It is alleged that a number of the representa- 



THE GIRONDIST SUPREMACY. 235 

tives are conspiring to have the federative system adopted, 
and thus bring about the dimembrement of France. It is 
essential that we remain a unit! Declare, then, by 
another decree, Tlie Unity of France and its Government. 
Having laid this foundation, let us bury our jealousies ! 
Let us be united, also, and push forward to our goal/' 

In other words, declare by a decree that the sovereignty 
of the people of France is henceforth vested in the Com- 
mune of Paris, of which Danton, Eobespierre and Marat 
are the dictators! 

Eobespierre followed in a similar strain, relating, as 
was his custom, the eminent services he had rendered to 
liberty. Like Danton, he laid great stress upon the sus- 
picion which was abroad against a party planning the par- 
celing of the country into a number of small Republics." 
Eobespierre's remarks made no impression upon the Con- 
vention, and calls for an adjournment were heard. But 
before the members were permitted to take a breathing 
spell, they were to make the personal acquaintance of the 
most dreaded and most execrated man in France — Editor 
Marat. He had been denounced by one of the speakers 
for having published an anarchistic appeal in his paper, 
and he now asked to be heard in his own defense. 

The very sight of his repulsive features called to the 
minds of the representatives the murders he had advo- 
cated, and, as he ascended the tribune, the cry of "a bas! 
a bas ! " (Down ! down ! ) was heard on every side. His 
appearance — the coat he wore, his necktie, his disheveled 
hair, everything about him — showed his studied efforts to 
gain the admiration of the rabble. It was the first time 
he had appeared in the tribune, and, casting the furtive 
glance of a tiger over the Convention, he began by calmly 
saying: ''I have a great number of enemies in this 
Assembly." 

'* All ! All ! " was the tumultuous interruption. Appar- 



QSG THE FOES OF THE FRENGE RE VOL TITION. 

ently unconcerned, Marat resumed: " I have a great many 
enemies in this Convention — personal enemies. I recall 
them to a sense of modesty. Let them spare their ferocious 
clamors against a man who has served liberty and them 
more than they can know. People talk of a triumvirate ! 
of a dictatorship ! — apian which they attribute to the 
representatives of Paris. AYell; it is due to justice to 
declare that my colleagues, and especially Eobespierre and 
Danton, have always been hostile to it, and that I have 
always had to combat them on this very point. I was the 
first and the only one among all the political writers of 
France who thought of this measure, as the only expedi- 
ent to crush traitors and conspirators. It is I alone who 
ought to be punished; but, before you punish, you ought 
to hear. Amidst the everlasting machinations of a per- 
fidious King, of an abominable court, and of false patri- 
ots, who, in both Assemblies, have bartered away public 
liberty, will you reproach me for having devised the only 
means of salvation and of having called down vengeance 
upon guilty heads? No; for the people would condemn 
you if you did. They have felt that the only expedient 
left is to make themselves dictators, in order to deliver 
themselves from traitors. I have shuddered more than 
any other at the idea of these terrible movements, and it 
is that they might not prove vain that I have wished them 
to be directed by o, just and firm hand. If, at the storm- 
ing of the Bastile, the necessity of this measure had 
been understood, five hundred guilty heads would have 
fallen at my bidding, and peace would have been ensured 
from that time forth. But, for want of the display of this 
energy, equally wise and necessary, one hundred thousand 
patriots have been slaughtered, and one hundred thousand 
more are threatened with slaughter. As a proof that it 
was not my wish to transform this dictator, tribune, trium- 
virate—the name is of no consequence — into a tyrant such 



TEE OIROKDIST SUPREMACY. &S7 

as stupidity only conceives, but a victim, rather, sacrificed 
to the country, whose lot no ambitious man could have 
envied, — the proof of it, I repeat, is, that I proposed at the 
same time to have his authority limited to a few days, and 
his only power that of condemning traitors. In order to 
keej) him constantly under the eye of the people, I sug- 
gested that a cannon-ball be fastened to his leg during his 
days of authority." 

Shouts of laughter and expressions of disgust here 
interrupted the editor^s harangue. Order being restored, 
he continued, suavely: ''My views, revolting as they seem 
to you, tend to the public welfare. If you are not suffi- 
ciently enlightened to understand them, so much the 
worse for you." 

Horrified and in a measure stunned by the utterances 
of this blood-thirsty fanatic, the Convention had allov/ed 
him to finish his speech. When he returned to his seat to 
the Mountain, he apjDeared satisfied that, if he had not 
convinced the members, he had pleased the mob assembled 
in the galleries, and that was his object. 

Vergniaud now arose and apologized to the Convention 
''for being compelled to reply to a man dripping with gall 
and covered with blood." In his hand he waved the cir- 
cular, posted by Marat all over the city, on the very day 
of the assembling of the National Convention, in which 
he had urged another insurrection. 

The reading of some of its passages aroused the most 
intense feeling against its author. And the cry, " To the 
Abbaye! To the Guillotine! " was frequently heard. 

The Assembly was about to vote on the question of his 
indictment, when Marat again insisted upon being heard. 
At last, obtaining the floor, he said "he Avould not disown 
the hand-bill just read, for falsehood had never approached 
his lips, and fear was a stranger to his heart. To demand 
a retraction, of me," he continued, "is to require of me 



^55 THE FOES OF TEE FRENCH BE VOL UTION. 

not to see what I do see, and not to feel what I do feel, 
and there is no power under the sun capable of producing 
a reversal of my ideas. I can answer for the purity of my 
heart, but I can not change my thoughts/' 

Marat then had the audacity to warn the Convention of 
the danger of giving way to passion and prejudice, saying 
"that if his journal had not appeared that very day to 
exculpate him, they would have sent him blindly to prison, 
but," he added, producing a pistol which he always carried 
in his pocket, and which he now pointed to his head, ''I 
have the wherewithal to remain free; and had you decreed 
my accusation, I would have blown my brains out on this 
very tribune. Such are the fruits of my labors, my dan- 
gers, my sufferings. But I shall now stay with you and 
defy your fury!"" 

Marat was as great a coward as he was a fanatic; but, 
knowing the galleries were filled with his adherents, he 
knew his dramatic exhibition would have its effect, and he 
knew also there was no need of suicide, just then. 

Tallien, one of the murderers of the 2d of September, 
fearing the result of the Girondists' charges, arose and 
demanded "a cessation of these scandalous personalities." 
The majority of the Convention, not wishing at this time 
to provoke further trouble, assented, and after adopting the 
decree declaring *Hhe French Republic 07ie and indivis- 
ible," adjourned. By neglecting then and there to decree 
the death 'penalty against any who should aspire to become 
Dictator of France, and by allowing Marat to escape 
rmpicnished, the Girondists sealed their fate. 

Danton having resigned the Secretaryship of Justice, 
Garat, an honorable but feeble man, was appointed by 
the Convention to fill his place. 

Pache, a former officer in the Navy Department, 
a man friendly to the Commune of Paris, received the 
portfolio of War. Servan resigning, Roland, Claviere, 



THE GIRONDIST SUPREMACY. S39 

Lebrun and Monge Avere retained in tlie Executive 
Council; but under the overpowering influence of the 
committees of the Convention, they were now little more 
than a clerical body, charged with executing the orders of 
the Convention. Petion, having been elected President of 
the Assembly, also resigned his position as Mayor of Paris, 
and Chambon, a member of the Jacobin Club, was elected 
in his stead. 

The various committees of the Convention were as fol- 
lows: That of Surveillance, with thirty members; of War, 
with twenty-four; of Accounts, with fifteen; of Criminal 
and Civil Legislation, forty-eight; of Assignat, Specie and 
Finances, forty-two, and, finally, a committee of nine, to 
prepare a draft for a new Constitution. This important 
committee was composed of Sieyes, Condorcet, Thomas 
Paine, (who had been elected to the Convention after 
being made a French citizen,) Gensonne, Vergniaud, 
Petion, Brissot, Barrere and Danton. Eobespierre was 
deeply mortified at having been excluded from this com- 
mittee — not a member of the Mountain was appointed, 
however. The Girondists had now full control of the 
Convention, the Ministry, and of the army. The effect of 
the recent debate ought to have convinced the most short- 
sighted of their party that, unless their power was now 
used, the violent factions would eventually gain the mastery 
of the Convention. A vigorous policy against anarchism, the 
suppression of the Paris Commune, and the disarmament 
of the sections should have followed the organization of 
the house. The Girondists were supported by the moral 
weight of the country. A bold, firm stand could have 
made them complete masters of the situation. The salu- 
tary influence such an exhibition of energy and of sover- 
eign will, not only upon the immediate surroundings of 
the Convention but upon the republican sentiment in 
France and elsewhere, would have had can only now be 



m TEE FOES OF THE FRENCH RETOLXJTION. 

properly estimated. While the Convention "was engaged 
in a contest for control of the house, the peoples of the 
adjoining countries were imbibing the spirit of republican- 
ism. 

On the 21st of the month, while the flag of the 
Republic was being hoisted upon the Tuileries, the 
cannonade at Valmy had arrested the onward march of the 
Prussians, and in less than a month thereafter the tri- 
colored emblem of the French Eepublic was cheered at 
Brussels by the Belgians, at Mayence by the Germans, and 
at Chambery and Nice by the Savoyards. 

In less than two months the Republic had overflowed 
its borders, and the oppressed peoples of the neighboring 
states were already growing restive under its vivifying effect. 
The neighboring despots were becoming alarmed! The 
King of Sardinia v;as the first to move- An invasion 
of French territory, to seek revenge for some fancied 
injury, had been decided upon. He had massed a formid- 
able army of veterans, with 200 pieces of artillery at the 
frontier ready to cross the borders. 

The French army, under General Anselm, mostly com- 
posed of National Guards, with four pieces of artillery 
all told, received the order to advance upon the Sardinians 
which, under the circumstances, seemed a rash and senseless 
undertaking. No slaughter resulted, however. Not a 
shot was fired. The people and soldiers had felt the ieaven 
of freedom, and cordial greetings superseded shot and 
shell. The grand army retired with its artillery, and 
Nice opened its doors to the soldiers of the new Rej)ub]ic. 
In Savoy an amusing scene was witnessed. At Chambery, 
the emigres, numerous and insolent, having torn the tri- 
colored cockade from the breast of a merchant, the Cham- 
berians, in reprisal, attached the Royalist cockade to the 
tails of their dogs. General Montesquieu, who had been 
advancing cautiously towards Savoy, meeting with no 



THE 0IR0NDI8T S TIPRBMA CY. Ul 

resistance, concluded to enter Ohambery alone. He was 
received by the citizens witli acclamations of joy. 

On the Ehine, General Oustine was met hy German 
converts to republicanism and entreated to come and free 
Germany from despotism. Taking Spire without diffi- 
culty, he was invited to come to Worms, the doors of 
which were gladly opened to him. Under this inspiring 
influence a German professor issued an appeal to Custine 
and the French Republic, praying for the liberation of Ger- 
many. (By way of curiosity, it would be gratifying to 
know what was the after career of this professor.) 

From Worms, General Onstine was induced to march 
upon Mayence, garrisoned by a large army — supplied with 
formidable artillery. Her gates, at his approach, flew 
open as if by enchantment; not by treachery, as some 
writers would have us believe, but through the new fire 
emblazoned on the tri-color flag of France. 

The Prussians even, about Verdun, after a short con- 
ference with General Dumouriez, who had been authorized 
to treat with the Duke of Brunswick, hearing that General 
Custine was threatening their left flank, commenced their 
famous jij)ro?»en«f?e milUaire, on the 27th of September — to 
the rear. 

But while the Prussians were pleasantly promenading 
toward home, the Austrians crossed the frontier and for 
eight days bombarded the city of Lille, but without 
accomplishing more than the destruction of a few houses. 
Dumouriez was upon the point of marching against them, 
when the}^, too, deemed it the best policy to turn tail 
and evacuate French territory. 

Thus it came about that, in less than thirty days after 
the Eepublic of France had been proclaimed, the back of 
the great foreign coalition against her was broken. At 
this time France was more powerful than she has ever been 
since — not in a military sense, but as the representative 



U^ THE FOES OF TEE FRENGll REVOLtlTIOm 

nation of liberty in Europe, and it is safe to say, hut 
for tlie ascendency of Ifaraiism in Paris, her emblem of 
" Liieriy, Equality, and Fraternity" might have luaved 
from the spires of every royal palace in Europe. 

The people of France were not in a vindicti?e mood. 
They were satisfied; the Eepublic was established; the King 
was a prisoner 'm the Temple and could do no more harm 
through conspiration. A sentiment of pity for him and 
his. family was becoming general — more general than the 
feeling of resentment. This phase of feeling was shown 
in the election of Petion, a leading Girondist, and Pres- 
ident of the National Convention as Mayor of Paris. But 
the Jacobin and her auxiliary clubs throughout the coun- 
try seemed determined to stir up dissension, Danton, 
having failed in his effort to reconcile the Girondists, and 
seeing the evident determination of the latter to bring the 
perpetrators and instigators of the September atrocities to 
justice, allied himself more intimately with the implacable' 
Robespierre for the purpose of annihilating his enemies. 
The imprisoned King, v/hose fate was about to be decided, 
was used as the stepping stone to this end. 

In the early part of October the auxiliary clubs in the 
departments received a circular from the mother club in 
Paris, to the following effect: 

" We are in the minority; to command we must place 
the Girondists in a position in which they may destroy 
themselves. By attempting to save the King, or by con- 
demning him contrary to their known convictions, they 
will abase themselves in the eyes of the country. 

'* Let us demand the death of the King!'' 

This was the key-note of the war against the Girondists. 



4ii'iiiiiil»iw.*«il liliniW I f'i IWIW " "111" «"ii«i iniN'i i «i liiiiifi * I I'l'iui ffliiia iiiiin'lf i ' iiiiwi ' 'i « i ■ ii \* 







LE DUG D'ORLEAHS. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVL 

On the 1st of October the question of the disposition 
of the King was brought before the Convention by Marat 
and Merlin. The private papers which had been taken 
from the Tuileries and kept under guard since the King's 
imprisonment, were ordered to be examined, arranged and 
inventoried by a commission of twenty-four Deputies, to 
be called a Vigilance Committee. Some of the letters 
bearing on the King's guilt being ordered published, a 
lengthy and acrimonious debate followed. 

On the 7fch of JSTovember Mailhe read to the Conven- 
tion the following report of the Committee on Legislation, 
to-wit: ''Louis the XVI. can be tried. He must be tried 
by the National Convention. Three commissioners, to be 
chosen by the Assembly, shall be charged with the collec- 
tion of papers, instructions and proofs relative to the 
crimes imputed to Louis the XVI. 

" The commissioners shall end their report by specifying 
the crimes of which Louis XVI. is accused. 

"If this information is accepted it shall be printed and 
communicated to Louis XVL, and his defenders, if he 
think proper to choose any. 

"The originals of these papers, if Louis the XVI. 
demand to see them, shall be carried to the Temple by 
twelve commissioners (after copies of them have been 
taken), and afterwards carried back to the National 
Archives by the commissioners. 

"The National Convention shall fix the day on which 
Louis XVI. shall appear before them. 

2k3 



Ult TEE FOES OF TEE ERENCE REVOL VTION. 

"Louis XVI., either by himself or his advisers, shall 
present his defense in writing, and signed by him, or 
verbally. 

" The National Convention shall give judgment by a 
majority of votes." 

On November the 13th discussion upon the passage of 
the report begun. 

At the very outset, Petion, evidently speaking in the 
name of the Girondists, asked that the question of the 
King's inviolability be primarily discussed. This was a 
fatal error, for it involved the right of Revolution, and 
it placed the Girondists in the position of questioning the 
authority of the Nation to change the form of the French 
Government. If the inviolability of the King was rec- 
ognized, or even debateable, the insurrection of the 10th 
of August was an unpardonable crime. If the King could 
do no wrong, the feast of the Confederates, and the oath 
taken by the people and by the King to respect and main- 
tain the Constitution, was a veritable farce, since this oath 
only bound the people, while the King's inviolability was 
a bar against his prosecution for perjury and treason. The 
King's blood was only demanded by a very small minority 
of the Convention; not a single Deputy, however, from 
Marat to the most conservative, in the Centre, was will- 
ing to admit the illegitimacy, or surrender an iota of the 
achievement of the Eevolution. Of all the pleas, there- 
fore, to save the life of the King, this was the most 
injudicious; and from the moment it was formally made, 
moderation and clemency becam.e impossible. The peo- 
ple, forgetting the King, became exasperated at this plea 
of infallibility, and the excitement growing out of its 
discussion furnished the Mountain the opportunity to cut 
the Gordian knot by demanding the King's immediate 
execution. 

Who was to strike the first blow ? Eobespierre and 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI S45 

Marat, the most sanguinary members of the Convention, 
decided to assume the leadership of the movement. Guns 
of smaller calibre, however, were to be pushed to the 
front. Saint Just, Eobespierre's youthful protege and 
satellite, was thereupon selected to open the proceedings. 

Not quite twenty-five years of age. Saint Just was, 
perhaps, the most fanatical anarchist in the Assembly. 
Through the incident of a private correspondence, he had 
attracted Eobespierre's attention, by whose influence he 
was subsequently elected a Deputy to the Convention. In 
his delirium for the complete liberty of France, he had 
written some very poor poems; but undaunted, and imag- 
ining himself a Brutus,— "who must,'' as he once wrote 
to a friend, "kill himself if he did not kill some one 
else" — he was determined to excel his patron and master, 
Robespierre, in accelerating the annihilation of royalty. 

The time was propitious for the activity of such fan- 
atics, and the success of his efforts in bringing the King 
to trial must have been exceedingly gratifying to his 
vanity. 

In addressing the Convention upon the question, he 
slowly .ascended the steps of the tribune, and, with an 
impudent stare to the " Right," and, the utmost self-com- 
placency spoke as follows : 

"Are you, the Committee, his supposed adversary, 
endeavoring to hunt nip forms for bringing the ex-King to 
trial? You seem determined to make a citizen of him. I 
say, the King is not a citizen, and ought to be treated as 
an enemy; an enemy whom we should fight and not try. 
The day will come when people will be astonished to hear 
that we, in the eighteenth century, were found to be 
behind the Romans in the time of Csesar, when tyrants 
were immolated before the eyes of a full Senate, without 
other formality than twenty-three dagger luounds, and with- 
out the delays of other law than the liberty of Rome ! 



S46 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

The men who are to try Louis are the men who are to 
establish a Eepublic; those who have doubts of the guilt 
of the King will never be able to found a Eepublic. Some 
of the deputies seem to waver, and each approaches the 
question of the King^s trial with his own peculiar pre- 
judices and views. 

Some seem apprehensive of having hereafter to pay the 
penalty of their courage; others have not renounced 
monarchy.''^ Summed up in a few words. Saint Just's 
remarks signified: Kill! Kill the King without trial! 
Kill, as Csesar was killed — unawares, and beware of those 
who do not cry, kill; they are royalists ! 

A plea for murder and proscription. This was the task 
that Eobespierre and the mountain now charged Saint 
Just with. Death to the King, but at the same time 
death to the Girondists. Henceforth the slightest show 
of pity or clemency toward the King was to be made just 
cause for suspicion of royalistic and consequently anti- 
republican sympathy. 

In order that the reader may form some idea of the 
nature of the debate upon the legality of the King's trial, 
the following speech of Henri Gregoire, Bishop of Blois, 
and author of the famous saying, " Uhisioire des rois est 
U martyrologe des nations," is here reproduced. 

" Posterity will, perhaps, be astonished that it could 
be made a question whether a great nation can judge its 
first servant ! But sixteen months ago, at this tribunal, 
I proved that Louis XVI. could be tried ! Hisses were 
the reward of my courage. 

Citizens, I come again to plead the same cause. I 
speak to just men; they will hear me with indulgence, 
and with the calmness of reason. The person of the King, 
we are told, is inviolable; therefore his inviolability ought 
to extend to all his acts. The answer to this proposition 
is easy. Legislators are equally inviolable," etc,, §tQ. 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVL 247 

" Absolute inviolability is a monster ! It will impel a 
man to wickedness by assuring him of impunity for all his 
crimes. To declare a man inviolable, to entrust him with 
the care of preserving those laws which he himself may 
violate at pleasure, is to outrage not only nature but the 
Constitution. To admit absolute inviolability is to legal- 
ize perfidy, ferocity and cruelty.'^ 

Thus continuing at some length, Gregoire passes on to 
the consideration of the application of his principles to 
royalty, as follows: 

"I maintain that Louis XVI. was never a Consti- 
tutional King. When he, deserting his post, fled to 
Varennes, he left a protest, in which he declared our new 
government vicious, and impossible to be carried into 
execution — the very Constitution he afterward appeared 
to value and accept. This protest, which was a real abdi- 
cation, has ever since been the rule of his conduct. 
According to the terms of the Constitution, in retracting 
his oath, he is considered to have abdicated, and was there 
ever a man who so solemnly sported with the obligations 
of an oath ? It was here, in this hall, that I said to the 
legislators, ' Louis will swear to everything and keep to 
nothing,' Was ever a prediction more completely veri- 
fied? This same Louis told the Assembly, of his own 
accord, that the most dangerous enemies of the State were 
those who doubted his fidelity to France, and, returning 
to his palace, the den of crimes, he contrived and brought 
to perfection every iniquity against the people, I there- 
fore move that Louis XVI. be brought to trial \" 

A letter from Thomas Paine, who was unable to express 
himself in French, was read to the Convention, on the 
20th of November, advocating the same course. "1 think,'' 
said he, 'Hhat Louis XVL ought to be tried — not in a 
spirit of vengeance, but because the measure is just, law- 
ful, and conformable to soiind policy. If -Louis XVI, is 



2JiS THE FOES OF TEE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

innocent, lie can prove it ; if he is guilty, let the National 
AVill determine whether he shall be pardoned or punished. 

" But besides the motives which personally affect Louis 
XVI., there are others which make his trial necessary. I 
shall unfold these motives in language best suited to their 
clearness, and in no other. There was formed among the 
crowned ruffians of Europe a conspiracy, which threat- 
ened not only French liberty, but, likewise, the liberty of 
all nations. Everything goes to prove that Louis XVI. 
was one of the partners of this conspiracy. 

*' You now have this man in your power, he being the 
only one at present of the band of whom France can 
make sure," etc., etc. " We have seen the unhappy sol- 
diers of Austria, Prussia, and other powers, torn from 
their firesides and driven to carnage, to sustain, at the 
price of their own blood, the common cause of these 
crowned robbers. They have loaded the remaining inhab- 
itants of these countries with taxes to pay the expenses of 
these wars. All this has been done to aid,solely,Louis XVI. 
Some of the conspirators have acted openly, but there is 
reason to believe that this conspiracy is composed of two 
classes of robbers: those who have boldly taken up arms, and 
those who have lent to the cause secret encouragement 
and secret assistance. It is indispensable that France and 
all Europe shall know who these accomplices are." 

After mentioning the fact that the Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, on the convening of the National Convention, had 
presented a statement of those governments of Europe 
which were public and which secret enemies of France, 
among them Austria, Sardinia, Prussia, and Hanover, 
Paine speaks of England's position as follows: ''The 
long-subsisting fear of a revolution in England has, I 
believe, prevented this court from manifesting as much 
publicity in its operations as have the other courts," etc. 
''Everybody knows that the Landgrave of Hesse fights 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. 249 

only as he is paid. He has been for several years in the 
pay of the court of England. If the trial of Louis XVI. 
could bring to light the fact that this dealer in human 
flesh has been paid from taxes levied on the people of 
England, it is but jastice to the English that they be 
informed of this fact. 

*' Louis XVI., considered as an individual, is beneath 
the notice of the Republic; but as a part of a band of con- 
spirators, as a criminal whose trial may lead all the peoples 
of the world to a knowledge and detestation of the dis- 
astrous system of monarchy, and the plots and intrigues 
of their own courts, he ought and must be tried. 

''If the crimes for which Louis XVI. is arraigned were 
absolutely personal to him, without reference to general 
conspiracies, the folly of the moment, inviolability, might 
be urged in his behalf with some show of reason; but for 
having conspired with all Europe, we ought to use every 
means in our power to discover the extent of the con- 
spirac^y. 

"France is now a Republic! She has completed 
her revolution ! But she is not able to reap all the 
advantages arising from her changed condition as long as 
she is environed by despotic governments; their armies 
and marine oblige her, likewise, to keep troops and ships 
in readiness. It is, therefore, to her immediate interest 
that all nations be as free as herself ! that revolutions be 
universal ! and since Louis XVI. can serve to prove the 
necessities of revolutions, France ought not to let slip so 
precious an opportunity ! 

''The despots of Europe have formed alliances to pre- 
serve their respective authority, and to perpetuate the 
oppression of nations; to this end they invaded French 
territory; they dread the effect of the new spirit in their 
own countries; but their attempt was not successful. 
France has vanquished their armies; and it is also left to 



250 THE FOES OF TEE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

her to sift to the bottom this conspiracy, and to expose 
to the world the despots Who have had the infamy to take 
part in it. 

"These are my motives for demanding that Louis XVI. 
be judged; and it is from this sole point of view that his 
trial appears to me of sufficient importance to attract the 
attention of the Republic," etc., etc, 

Crouzet, supposed to express practically the feeling of 
the Girondists, said: "It was not in the interest of the 
French Nation to bring Louis XVI. to trial, and still less 
to cut off his head on the scaffold; that clemency was 
the natural virtue of a great nation, and a free people, to 
secure their independence, ought never to lower them- 
selves to the sanguinary means employed by despots. To 
take away the life of the late King would be to transmit 
his pretensions to a child, interesting both by his age and 
innocence. 

" Louis XVI., on his accession to the throne, took the 
earliest opportunity to abolish feudal bondage; to renounce 
all advantages usurped by his ancestors, and to call to his 
council such men as seemed to be the choice of the peo- 
ple. Why, then, must we not believe that, misled by 
perfidious counsellors, he has been precipitated from abyss 
to abyss by the notables, whom he voluntarily assembled, 
and by the corrupted members of the Assembly," etc., etc. 

"Louis XVI. , some of you say, is a criminal for not 
having solemnly opposed enterprises carried on in his 
name; and since it is true that there is no longer a throne, 
and consequently no punishment of dethronement to be 
applied, humanity impels us to inflict no other. The 
French Nation is forever delivered from the scourge of 
kings. Is it not sufficiently avenged ? Can not it be so 
without blood — and always blood? 

" Oh, ye, who may be misled by an excess of enthusiasm^ 



TlilAL AND EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVL S51 

does not tlie deliverance of mankind from tyranny expose 
us to the necessity of shedding enough blood? 

"Louis XVI. has been already punished with more 
severity than the Constitution can inflict. The extremity 
proposed to this .Convention would be only an act of weak- 
ness. I will venture to add cowardice! We ought to give 
to the world, which beholds us, the spectacle of a king 
returning with his family to the dignity of citizenship — 
a spectacle much more striking and affecting — a lesson 
more sublime than that which could be given by all the 
executioners in the universe. On these considerations I 
propose the following decree: 

" 'That the Legislative Assembly be applauded for the 
courage and zeal it has displayed in suspending the execu- 
tive power in the hands of Louis XVL for the abolition of 
royalty in France, and the establishment of a Eepublic. 
That as soon as the Constitution shall be presented to the 
French people for acceptance, it shall be proposed to them 
to determine the fate of Louis XVL, his son, daughter, 
wife, and his sister Elizabeth, and all others of the reign- 
ing family actually residing in France; and until that pe- 
riod the National Convention shall cause proper provision 
to be made for the safety and maintainance of the late 
King, and of such of his family as are now in the Temple.^" 

A number of other motions were made, but the Con- 
vention adopted that of Petion, and decreed, '^ Louis XVI. 
shall be judged — he shall be judged by the National Con- 
vention.'" 

On the 3rd of December Eobespierre, in a two hours' 
speech, ended with this resolution: 

''That Louis Capet be condemned to suffer death; 
that he be executed on the square before the Tuileries, 
on which a monument shall be erected to perpetuate an 
example of national justice. Also, that the wife of Louis 
Capet be delivered up to the Tribunal of Justice; and tljat 



252 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

her son be kept in the Temple until liberty be firmly estab- 
lished in France." 

On the 10th, measures were taken to bring the King 
before the bar of the Convention. 

A chosen commission of twenty-one members were to 
present the Declaratory Act of the crimes with which 
"Louis Capet " stood charged. On the next day, at eight 
o'clock, he was to be called before the Convention. All 
the military of Paris were to be on duty on the Uth " to 
preserve the tranquillity of the capital." 

On his way from the Temple to the Convention, his 
civil escort was to consist of thirty members of the Execu- 
tive Council, Mayor Chambon, Prosecutor of the Com- 
mune, and the Clerks of Ptecord. 

The military, to the number of six hundred men, armed 
with muskets, with fifteen heavy cartridges each, skill- 
ful in their maneuvers, were to march in three ranks 
in triple file, as escort to the King's carriage. Cannon, 
cavalry, bands, and f usileers were to be at the prison by 
six o'clock. 

It would appear from the great military preparations 
made by General Santerre, that he was in fear of either a 
rescue or the capture of the King by the mob, and his 
execution without the delays attendant upon the courts of 
justice. As the procession took its way to the Conven- 
tion the people preserved the most dignified silence. Upon 
arriving at the hall, the King was forced to wait three 
hours before being admitted, Deputy Barbaroux at the 
time occupying the attention of the members with the 
presentation of the Declaratory Act. 

At half past two o'clock General Santerre informed the 
Convention that ''Louis Capet" awaited its orders. 

Eeceiving a sign of assent from Barere, the King was 
ushered in by Mayor Chambon, two municipal officers. 
Generals Santerre and Willenkotf, 







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PAPER MONEY OF THE REPUBLIC. 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF LOtllS XVI S53 

Addressing tlio King, the President said: ^' Louis, tlie 
French Nation accuses you. The National Convention 
has decreed that you sliall be judged by them; that you 
shall be arraigned by them. We are ready to read to you 
the Declaratory Act of the crimes laid to your charge. 
You may sit down/^ The King sat down. 

'^ Louis, the French Nation accuses you of having com- 
mitted a multitude of crimes." 

These crimes the President thereupon began to enume- 
rate. ^' First, that of interfering with the meeting of the 
Eepresentatives on the 20th of June, 1T89 ; of wanting 
to dictate laws to the Nation, and for that object, on the 
23rd, of surrounding their representatives with troops, 
also, at the same time presenting two royal declarations, 
subversive-of allliberty, and ordering the Eepresentatives 
to separate; of having sent an army to march against the 
citizens of Paris, which army was not recalled until the 
taking of the Bastile; of having long refused to sign the 
decree abolishing personal servitude, the feudal privileges, 
and tithes; of doubling the number of his life-guards, and 
calling the Eegiment of Flanders to Versailles, who, by 
trampling under foot the National cockade, had brought 
about the death of several persons; of having taken the 
oath of Federation, on the 14th of Jul}'', 1790, which you 
did not keep, but tried to corrupt the people through the 
persons of Talon, in Paris, and Mirabeau, in the provinces; 
of having addressed to the ambassadors of foreign powers 
a letter, saying you had freely accepted the Articles of the 
new Constitution, after which you sought to take flight 
with a false passport; ordered the Ministers to sign none 
of the acts passed by the National Assembly ; and forbid 
the Minister of Justice to deliver up the seal of State. 

'^That it had been learned through a note from General 
Bouille — in which he gives you an account of the use he 
had made of 993,000 livres — that this sum was employed in 



J?ZJ^ THE FOES OF THE FRENCH RE VOL VTION. 

part to furnish you witli an escort at the time of yotir 
flight to Varenne; that the blood of the citizens shed at 
the Gliam'p de Mars on the 17th of July, 1791, was through 
a criminal coalition between you and Lafayette, to which 
Mirabeau acceded ; that the agreement entered into 
between Leopold of Austria and Frederick William of 
Prussia, pledging themselves to restore an absolute mon- 
archy in France was kept a secret from the French until 
known by all the rest of Europe; that, when the standard 
of rebellion against the Assembly was hoisted in some of 
the provinces, you aided them by sending trooj}s ; that 
you paid your life-guards after they had crossed the Rhine, 
and sent money to Bouille and other emigres ; that your 
brothers atCoblentz are enemies of the State, having made 
loans, concluded alliances and rallied the emigres under 
their banners in your name. 

'^That when levies of men were ordered to meet the 
invading .armies, the recruiting was stopped before a 
quarter of the number needed had been secured, etc., etc." 

These charges were, in the main, but repetitions of the 
events which have taken place in France in the last three 
years. To all of these charges the King gave short 
explanations or point-blank denials. 

The president, then addressing the Convention, said : 
^' These are the charges," and turning to the King — 
^^ Louis, is there aught that you wish to add ?" 

"1 request a copy of the charges which I have heard," 
replied the King, '^and the documents or letters relating 
thereto ; also the liberty of choosing counsel for my 
defense." 

The documents and letters were then read to him, to 
most of which he answered, ''I have no knowledge of 
them." 

Whereupon, the President invited the King to with- 
draw^ as the Assembly wished to deliberate. 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF LO Um XVL 255 

'^ I demand counsel/' said the King before retiring, 
but received no answer. 

He was reconducted to prison in the same manner he 
had come. After the King's exit, a violent debate ensued 
in regard to allowing him counsel. Petion arose and 
said : ^"^I am surprised that so simple a question should 
excite so much acrimony and division. The King demands 
counsel ! I say no one can refuse him, unless he wishes 
to ignore all the principles of humanity, and I now move 
the simple question, ''Can Louis have counsel ?'" 

Thuriot said, " He only deserved the scaffold," or words 
to that effect. But after a short debate upon Petion's 
resolution, the following decree was passed : " Four mem- 
bers of the Convention shall go to the Temple and ask the 
King who are the citizens he wishes to entrust with his 
cause. '^ The committee was sent the next day, and, 
returning, informed the Convention that Louis had chosen 
Tronchet, or Target, and both, if the decree had not 
defined the number. 

Target wrote a letter, saying he was sixty years of age, 
was sick, and did not think himself possessed of a single 
qualification proper for performing such a task. 

Tronchet, also upwards of sixty, an ex-member of the 
Assembly, replied to the King's request as follows : ''A 
stranger to the court, I did not expect to be called from 
my solitude to defend its accused King. Were I to con- 
sult public opinion, I should send a refusal ; but nature 
tells me that Louis is a man, and every man has a right to 
defend his life. I therefore shall immediately repair to 
Paris.'^ 

One member proposed that the counsel should be 
thoroughly searched on entering the King's prison. 

Most of the members were shocked at this suggestion, 
but Robespierre thought it a necessary precaution. It 
was, however, lost. 



256 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH RE70L UTION. 

if- 

Upon Target's refusal to defend the King, Malesherbes, 
a gentleman seventy years of age, and who had been twice 
Secretary of State, offered his services, which were 
accepted by the King. 

It was finally decided that the trial should begin on 
Wednesday, the 26th of December, 1793. This was sooner 
than these two counsellors could prepare the paj)ers, and 
M. Deseze was made assistant attorney. At the same sit- 
ting it was agreed that the King could see his family; that 
the King could have pens, ink and paper. It was also 
decreed that all the Bourbon family, except those detained 
in the Temple, be banished from France. 

A partisan of the Duke of Orleans thereupon arose 
and asked that Philip Egalite — the name the Duke had 
taken — be excepted. Unhappily for this traitor to his 
family, he was allowed for the present to remain. 

On the 22d of December, General Santerre sent a note 
to the Convention asking them ^^the hour when Louis 
Capet was to be heard ! " 

The decree had been passed that at the hour of 10 
o'clock on December 26th, Louis be placed before the bar, 
and Santerre was so informed. 

The trial of the King, and the anguish of his afflicted 
family, is a familiar page of history to every student of 
French history, and the pity its perusal excites is not to 
this day a stranger to the most obdurate heart. 

The discussion upon the guilt of Louis XVI. was at 
length closed, and the Convention, on the 14th of January, 
decreed that the members must ascend singly to the 
tribune and vote upon the following questions: 

"Is Louis guilty or not guilty of high treason, and of 
attempts against the general safety of the State? 

" Shall, or shall not, the appeal to the peoi^le take place? 

"What punishment shall Louis suffer?" 

All members not present, assigning reasons for their 



TRIAL AND EXECVTION OF LOUIS XVL 257 

absence, were at liberty to vote on returning to the Con- 
vention. 

In voting, some explained tlieir vote, as for instance, 
Comte, in replying to his name said, *'As legislator, I 
declare Louis guilty; as judge, I have nothing to say." 

Danton replied in aloud voice: *'I pronounce Louis 
guilty!" 

Noel answered feelingly: "1 once had a son; he was 
slain in defense of his country; I do not think a father, 
v/ho bemoans the loss of his son, can fairly judge him 
who is the chief author of his wretchecj^ness." 

Pauchet replied to his name: ^^As a citizen, I am con- 
vinced of Louis^ g^iilt; as a legislator, I declare him so; 
as a judge, I have nothing to say." 

Chambon : " I do vote for the appeal to the people. 
They ought to declare if they desire the destruction of 
royalty." 

Lariviere : 'H never voted that the Convention should 
judge Louis, so I shall not vote for his condemnation." 

The vote stood on the first question, to wit : ''Is Louis 
guilty of high treason?" Of the 749 members, 683 voted 
in the affirmative ; 8 members were absent on account of 
illness, 20 upon commissions for the Convention, and 37 
assigned various motives for their votes. 

Thus was the King found guilty of high treason by a 
large majority of the Convention. 

The next question, ''Shall, or shall not, an appeal to 
the people take place," was voted upon and rejected by a 
majority of 423, 

Now was to come the great struggle! Upon the streets, 
at the theatres, and in the newspapers, nothing was heard 
but the possibility of the King's death on the scaffold. On 
the 16th the voting began as to what punishment should 
be inflicted upon him. 

Thiers describes the scene at the Convention as follows : 



S58 TEE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLVTION. 

" The first vote was cast at half -past seven in the even- 
ing, and the voting continued all night. Some voted 
merely ^ death/ others favored detention and banishment 
on the restoration of peace; while others again voted 
death, but with the restriction that the inquiry be made 
whether it was not expedient to stay the execution. This 
Avas designed to save the King, as time was everything, 
and delay meant acquittal. A number of the deputies 
favored this plan. The voting continued amidst great 
confusion. Now the interest in the King was at it height; 
many members had , arrived with the intention of voting 
for an inquiry; but, in the same degree the hatred and 
vigilance of Louis^ enemies increased, and the people had 
been brought to believe the life of the Republic demanded 
the death of the King. 

''Alarmed at the fury exhibited, many of the members 
feared personal violence, and, although deeply moved at 
the fate of Louis, were afraid of the consequences to the 
country in case of his acquittal. This fear was greatly 
increased by the scenes passing before them. As each 
member ascended the steps, the most profound silence was 
observed in the galleries and on the floor, that the intent 
of his vote be heard. If favorable to the King, murmurs 
of disapprobation followed the deputy to his seat ; if 
unfavorable, great applause greeted him." 

This ominous scene had its eifect upon many members, 
and caused them to change their minds, so that, when the 
vote was announced, at seven o^clock the following even- 
ing, it stood, for the King's death, 366; against, 361; 
eighteen members through various reasons failing to vote. 

This vote of five majority for death has never been 
deemed an impartial expression of the Convention that 
tried Louis XVI. 

The next step was for the King's counselors to endeavor 
to, obtain a respite. On the 19th this resolution was dis- 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. S&9 

cussed by the members. The fact that only _^^;e votes stood 
between the King and the guillotine caused his sympa- 
thizers to put forth renewed efforts. 

Louvetsaid: ''That for the honor of the people of 
France, and for the honor of the Convention itself, the 
question ought to be treated with all possible maturity 
and according to its magnitude.'^ 

Buzot: " I shall perhaps be murdered, but posterity 
shall judge me; I will therefore vote for Louis' respite." 

Thomas Paine: "1 voted for the detention of Louis, 
and his banishment when peace should be secured. I 
am afraid that the speedy execution of sentence upon 
Louis will rather pass for a deed of vengeance than a 
measure of justice. I wish the Convention had voted as 
the Nation would — I mean for imprisonment. The people 
of the United States of America have the utmost venera- 
tion for Louis, who secured to them their independence. 
And I can pledge myself to you, that the sentence will 
overwhelm all Americans with consternation. And, remem- 
ber, that it is they who will alone supply you with all 
the timber and naval stores you shall want in the mari- 
time war you are about to engage in. The ISTorth of Eu- 
rope is ready to bring its forces against you. You mean 
to send an ambassador to Philadelphia; my sincere wish 
is that this ambassador may announce to the Americans, 
that the National Convention of France, from pure friend- 
ship to America, has consented to respite the sentence of 
Louis. 

" Citizens! let not a neighboring despot enjoy the sat- 
isfaction of seeing the man mount the scaffold who has 
hrohen the chains of the Americans." 

Barrere in a violent speech, urged ''that the sentence 
take place immediately." 

Couthon moved " That the sentence be executed at the 
Place die Carousal, and a report of the execution made in 



260 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

twenty-four hours ! " whereupon the galleries burst into 
loud applause. 

Marat spoke at great length to prove ''that France 
was impatient to hear the news of the death of Louis XVI., 
and as the members had taken a nap during the night, 
they could well afford to pass the present night in finishing 
up the business/^ 

The vote being taken on the question of the King's 
respite, resulted in a majority of 193 against him, 79 
members not voting. 

The result was communicated to the Convention by 
President Vergniaud, whereupon De Bry rose, and in the 
course of a speech, said: '' Citizens, we have burnt our 
ships. Let us perish, if we must perish; but let us save 
the country ! " at which, many members rose and repeated 
together his words. 

On the 21st of January, 1793, the King was executed. 
Seventy thousand troops were on duty to preserve order. 
The details are too shocking to be dwelt upon even at this 
late day. M. Leduc endeavored to obtain the King's body 
from the Convention, to bury it by the side of his father 
at the Cathedral of Sens, but his request was not granted. 
It was decreed that Louis XVI. be buried, as any other 
common citizen, in the church-yard of St. Magdalen. A 
grave twelve feet in depth was immediately dug, and in 
the dusk of evening, and without ceremony, the body was 
thrown in. It was covered with quick lime and left to be 
consumed, near the remains of the Swiss soldiers slain at 
the Tuileries, on the 10th of August, 1792. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



FRENCH "UNITY." 



The justice of the King's execution can not be ques- 
tioned. He had been found guilty of high treason by the 
highest authority in the land, and the penalty for this 
crime was death. But the question arises, was his execu- 
tion necessary — was it sound policy? It was neither the 
one nor the other; nor was it dictated by either of these 
reasons. The sole question of the King's trial was raised 
and pressed by the '*" Mountain/' for the double purpose 
of forwarding their political supremacy, and to compel 
the Girondists to expose to the public their real senti- 
ments; in other words, that the Girondist faction might 
furnish the material for its own destruction. For a few 
days after the horrible event, general unanimity of feel- 
ing appeared to prevail. The object of their contention 
lay in his grave, and for many reasons all factions and 
parties now seemed to desire peace. 

An address, signed by all the members of the Conven- 
tion, in which ''this solemn act of justice was declared 
to have been the act of all, and for which they were unit- 
edly responsible," was sent to ail the Departments of the 
Eepublic. 

A few days later, a levy of three hundred thousand 
men, to be uniformed and equipped by their respective 
municipalities, and an issue of nine hundred millions new 
assignates were unanimously decreed. On the first of Feb- 
ruary the Convention, incensed at the noticeto the French 
ambassador to leave London within twenty-four hours, 
voted for war against England. It finally adopted a 

261 



i?62 TEE FOES OF THE FREXCH REVOLUTION. 

decree couferriug dictatorial powers upon special commit- 
tees, and upon commissaries or envoys of the Convention. 

On the loth, the Committee on the Constitution, sub- 
mitted its report to the Convention. In the midst of 
formidable royalistic uprisings in the A^endee and other 
parts of France, and the formation of a powerful coalition 
between England, the German Empire, Holland, Spain, 
and Naples, against the country, the debate on this report 
was begun. 

'•'The Convention," says Michelet, in speaking of this 
period of the Revolution, ''^had a greater task to perform 
than that of defending the territorial integrity of the 
country. Her Kings had many times defended it. But 
the special and infinitely difficult mission of the Conven- 
tion was that of establishing the Unity of France-, the 
indivisibility of the Republic ! This was the watch word 
of 1793. 

''France, emerging from a barbarian age, could no 
longer content herself with a false unity, which for so 
many years has been but a cover for disunion. Nor could 
she accept \\\& feeble federative unity of tlie United States 
and Switzerland, which is nothing more than a conseyiting 
discord. To return to the one or the other of these 
imperfect forms was either to perish or fall to the level of 
those inferior creatures u-Jio have no need of unity. 

" From the day France first discerned the exalted idea 
of true unity, she was exhilarated in spirit. Whoever 
dared, in word or thought, to recall either of ih.Qs,Q forms 
of discord — royalism or federalism — seemed to the people 
aprofaner; an enemy to humanity; a distroyer of his 
country ! 

'•' This little word ' federal,' taken up by the Royalists 
and used against their opponents, was in turn used by the 
Jacobins to guillotine the Girondist party. ' Look well 
at this word federal,' said both Royalists and Jacobins, 




L-iL-ibiLibi 



FEENCH "UNITY." 263 

' Is it not evident tliat Brissot contemplates the debase- 
ment of France to a federation similar to that of the 
United States of America ? ' " 

M. Michelet^s idea of unity must not be confounded 
with the idea of unio7i. Unity, as used by him, would bo 
better expressed by concentration. To concentrate is to 
bring to a common center; to amalgamate the parts into 
one body, destroying the activity of the parts. To unite 
is to combine ; to join for a common purpose, joreserving 
the integrity of the parts, and strengthening them by a 
union of affection and interests. Union implies freedom 
of action through a voluntary agreement to unite for 
mutual benefit and protection. Concentration implies 
force ; compulsion by a central power. Union fosters and 
maintains liberty; concentration invariably destroys it. 

At the first anniversary of the taking of the Bastile 
the enthusiastic manifestations of the Bretons, the Nor- 
mans, Burgundians — in short, the people of all the prov- 
ences in favor of free institutions — were as sincere as they 
were strong, and, with the exception of the handful of 
nobles and priests, the people of France may be said to 
have been unanimous in sympathy with the Eevolution, 
and were Frenchmen to the core; that is to say, they were 
one in the sentiment of love and devotion to a regenerated 
country. ISTo pressure from above, or from a powerful 
center was necessary; there was an invisible and indivis- 
ible union of hearts, infinitely more united in the senti- 
ment of liberty, equality, and fraternity, and true patriot- 
ism than were the people of the American Colonies in 
1776. 

Suppose the people of the different provinces had 
elected their representatives to a National Assembly at 
Paris, or elsewhere; perfected a Constitution for the 
'^United Provinces of France/' leaving to each province 
its local independence, and had submitted this Federal 



264- THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOL UTION. 

Constitution to the provinces for ratification, is it snp- 
posable that a single one of these provinces would have 
hesitated an instant in giving its hearty adhesion? Not 
one. 

But rather let us suppose, for an instant, that this 
French people, who, seven centuries before were found 
competent to manage their own communal affairs, had, in 
1790, suddenly been invested with all the rights of j)olitical 
sovereignty — with personal liberty limited only by the 
liberties of others — given all the advantages and having 
the incentives for individual development unimpaired 
and their life and property protected by municipal and 
provincial authorities of their own free choice! Can it 
fairly be maintained that a voluntary union of these locally 
free and independent Normans, Burgundians, Gascoins, 
Lyonnais, etc., etc., but enthusiastic Frenchmen in all 
matters of common, national concern — esj^ecially in that 
of common defense — would have proven a " rope of sand" 
or " a conventional discord," as M. Michelet would have it? 

Nothing of the kind. The men who aided the Amer- 
icans in securing their independence, who, at Valmy, with 
the cry, " Vive la Patrie!" repulsed the Prussian invaders, 
and who, subsequently, toppled over the thrones of Europe 
and shattered their armies with the force of a tornado, 
possessed also the material of vv^hich good citizens are made. 
Instruction was all they needed — ''political education," 
that education which made Greece and Rome great in 
antiquity, and England and the United States in modern 
times, is only attainable by the joarticipation of the many 
in the public affairs of their country. 

Imbued with that local pride inherent in the German 
and French character, each province vying with its 
adjoining province in patriotic devotion to a common 
country, all the men and means for its successful defense 
would have been generously and zealously furnished the 



FRENCH •' UNITY." 265 

centra.1 or general government. This newly endowed 
people would have defended with their lives the inviola- 
bility of their representatives, and the independence and 
integrity of the National Assembly. The influence of 
these sober, earnest provincials could not have served 
otherwise than as a check upon the murderous bands of 
anarchists marching to the Capital to support the preten- 
tions of Editor Marat, Danton, Eobespierre and other 
leaders of the radical clubs. 

It may be urged that, since the federal system was not 
adopted in 1790, it was too late to make the change in 
1792. Perhaps it was. However, as was said before, 
had the Convention taken a firm stand, and effectively 
suppressed that centralizing power, theCommuneof Paris, 
it would have gained the confidence of the country and 
enabled the Girondists, had they been so disposed, to create 
a reactionary sentiment in favor of the federal system. 

As far as can be ascertained, it would seem that 
Deputy Buzot was the only one who possessed the cour- 
age of his convictions. During the debates upon the new 
Constitution, after expressing his admiration for the Fed- 
eral system of the United States, he said: 

'^ A fatal and seemingly irremediable error in the French 
mind is the idea of a division of political power. I will 
here say that the idea of a federative government for 
France similar to that of the United States is my own. 
It is possible that Brissot and my other friends had the 
same idea concerning a republican form of government 
best suited for France, but," apologizingly continues 
Buzot, ^'it never entered their minds to propose a thing 
of the kind. They feared all might be risked by propos- 
ing it. My friends saiu, as well as I did, the viciousness 
of ilie flan we did finally adopt; liowever, 'prudence forbade 
its being antagonized at that time." Mark the language. 

There is no doubt in the mind of the writer that, had 



266 THE F0E8 OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

the Girondists crushed the head of anarchism and eman- 
cipated themselves from the terrors of its revenge, the 
question of ^^ political decentralization" would at once 
have commanded their careful consideration. Fifty years 
after Buzot and the Girondists, Alexis de Tocqueville, in 
writing upon the American system, says: 

^'I am firmly convinced that provinical institutions are 
useful to all nations, but nowhere do they appear to me so 
necessary as among a democratic people. In an aristocrary, 
order can always be maintained in the midst of liberty; 
but a democracy, without provincial institutions, has no 
security against despotism. "What resistance can be offered 
to tyranny in a country where each individual is weak, and 
where the citizens are not united by any common inter- 
est? Those who demand the license of the mob, and those 
who fear absolute poAver, ought alike to desire the gradual 
development of provincial liherties. " And elsewhere, exactly 
applicable to the condition prevailing in France at this 
time, he says: 

" I am also convinced that democratic nations are most 
likely to fall beneath the yoke of centralized administra- 
tion, for several reasons, one of which is the following: 

'^The constant tendency of all nations is to concentrate 
all the strength of the government in the hands of the 
only power which directly represents the peojale, because, 
beyond the people, nothing is to be perceived but a mass 
of equal individuals. But, when the same power already 
has all the attributes of government, it can scarcely refrain 
from penetrating into the details of the administration, 
and an opportunity of doing so is sure to present itself in 
the long run, as was the case in France. In the French 
Revolution, there were two impulses in opposite directions, 
which must never be confounded; the one was favoralle 
to despotism, the other to liberty." Or — the one was favor- 
able to Jacobinism, the other to Democracy. 



FRENCH '■UNITY." 267 

'* When a compact nation/' continues De Tocqueville, 
*' divides its sovereignty, and adopts a confederate form 
of government, the tradition, customs, and the manners 
of the people for a long time struggle against the laws, and 
give an influence to the central government which the 
local laws forbid. / have nodouM tliat if France were to 
hecome a Confederate Republic like tliat of the United States 
the government loould he at first 7nore energetic than that of 
the American Union" I 

*' The Revolution declared itself the enemy, at once, of 
royalty and of provinical institutions; it confounded in 
indiscriminate hatred all that had preceded it — despotic 
power and the chechs to its aSwses; its tendency was at once 
to republicanize and to centralize. This double character 
of the French Eevolution is a fact which has been adroitly 
handled by the friends of absolute power. In this man- 
ner, apparent popularity may be united with hostility to 
the rights of the people, o^ndi the secret slave of tyranny 
may he the professed lover of freedom. 

*'The only nations which deny the utility of provincial 
liberties are those which have the fewest of them; in other 
words, those only censure the institution of a local self- 
government who do not know or understand it." 



CHAPTEE XXIX. 

OVERTHROW OF THE GIRONDISTS. 

The account of the heroic but unsuccessful struggle of 
the Grirondists, the most cultured, intelligent and patriotic 
members of the National Convention against the anarchistic 
tendencies of the Paris Commune and the Mountain, 
forms the most interesting episode in the history of the 
French Revolution. 

It is true, the year 1793 is replete with the records of 
patriotic devotion on the field of battle, but the battle of 
ideas fought upon the floor of the French National Con- 
vention should have, for the American reader, paramount 
interest at the present time. 

The princij)al incident which brought on a violent 
state of feeling between the members was the decree 
instructiug the Minister of Justice to institute criminal 
proceedings against the authors, accomplices and insti- 
gators of the murders and robberies committed between the 
2d and 6th of September. As before stated, one of the 
officials^ having privately informed a member that suflBcient 
evidence was in the hands of the department of justice to 
convict a number of the representatives, Danton among 
them, as well as a majority of the members of the Paris 
Commune, the machinery of the Jacobin and Cordelier 
Clubs was at once set in motion, with the view of com- 
pelling the Convention to abrogate the threatening decree. 

As the result, on the 8th of February a Jacobin depu- 
tation appeared before the Convention with a demand to 
this effect. It was strongly supported by the Mountain, 
and all opponents to its repeal were menaced with personal 



OVERTHROW OF THE GIRONDISTS. 269 

violence. These threats having resulted in the intimida- 
tion of a majority of the cowardly bourgeois center, the 
Convention suspended the operation of the decree. 

''This trial of strength/^ says Maillan, ''furnished the 
Jacobins with the thermometer of the Conyention.^' Hence- 
forth they were able to extort^ with the means in their 
poweii'j any decree which to them seemed necessary. 

Agaii\ the question of subsistence for the capital was 
pressing itself upon the attention of the Convention. It 
was not to be concealed, that not only Paris but all France 
was suffering from insufficiency of provisions, and, conse- 
quently, it was an easy matter for conspirators and design- 
ing demagogues to incite a riot, especially in Paris, where 
the idle and vicious had hurried in swarms — blatant, busy, 
savage and hungry. Paris hungry was Marat^s oppor- 
tunity. His newspaper, the " Friend of the People," fed 
and flourished upon the privations and irritation of the 
unemployed. 

On the 25th an address appeared in this newspaper 
inciting the people against the "monopolists,'^ the fore- 
stallers of grain, and the merchants of luxurious articles. 
On the evening of the appearance of this address the 
stores of several provision dealers were plundered and the 
owners maltreated. The following day, the matter having 
been brought before the Convention, a decree was adopted 
directing the prosecution of the instigators of these out- 
rages. The next day Marat's paper returned to the 
attack, accusing some of the representatives who had 
asked for his indictment as being themselves the insti- 
gators. Every indication now pointed to the approach of 
a violent crisis. Profiting by the dissensions in the Con- 
vention and the disorder in Paris, the counter-revolu- 
tionists and their foreign emissaries began operations upon 
the people in the country. A riot had already occurred in 
Montaban and Lyons had raised the counter-revolutionary 



SW THE FOBS OF THE FRENCH BE VOL JJTION. 

flag. Eepressive measures were immediately taken by the 
Convention, bat, being considered insufficient by the Com- 
mune of Paris — an organization which had no business 
to meddle in national affairs — formed a ^''Committee on 
Insurrections/^ On the 5th of March the news reached 
Paris that the army of the Moselle had been defeated, and 
the motion was made by a member of the Mountain to 
send all the available volunteers about Paris to tjie front. 

This proposition included the few battalions of Depart- 
mental Guards, the only reliable protectors against the 
ever-ready, riotous mob of the Paris Commune. Bar- 
baroux, who desired to speak on the motion, was hooted 
down; but Isnard, the tumultuous uproar notwitstanding, 
succeeded in making himself heard: 

"I ask myself every day,'' he said, ''whether we are 
the National Convention or a machine to pass decrees 
formulated by a faction. I ask myself, is Paris the only 
city, or only one of the cities of the Eepublic? It is time 
to halt; one thing must be decided; the Convention must 
hold the reins of the Empire; they must not be in tlie 
hands of this or that individual. We are accountable to 
France and to the whole world for our conduct. We 
must remain free and uninfluenced or we must give up 
our commissions. The liberty of a people is always 
suspended between two rocks: the rock of despotism on 
the one side and anarchy on the other. We have overcome 
despotism, but are in imminent danger of being crushed 
by anarchy. '^ 

Although these sentiments were applauded, and every 
member felt their force, the decree ordering the maritime 
troops, then stationed at Paris, to return to the defense of 
the coast, was passed, thus depriving the city itself of all 
armed protection. 

Danton and the other commissioners sent to inspect 
affairs in the North returned to Paris and submitted a 



OYEBTIIEOW OF THE GIRONDISTS. S71 

very discouraging report of the condition of the army in 
Belgium. Thereupon anotlier committee was appointed 
to call upon all the Sections of Paris and request them to 
issue an appeal to all citizens ''To take up arms and 
hasten to the relief of their countrymen in the North." 
These appeals were responded to with enthusiasm, but as 
in the call to fly to the rescue of Verdun i^revious to the 
September massacres, these volunteers would not consent 
to risk their lives for the maintainance of the Eepublic 
unless the untrustworthy Reiivcse^itatives (the Girondists) 
loere rendered harmless. 

The Jacobins were preparing for more blood-letting. 
On the 9th of March every Representative of the Moun- 
tain was in his place, and the galleries were packed by 
the members of the Radical clubs. Chaumette, the 
attorney for the Commune, arose and presented an address 
asking for the formation of a ''Revolutionary Tribunal 
without Appeal." A tax upon the rich was also demanded. 
After a prolonged debate, the formation of this terrible 
tribunal was decreed. Its formation, however, being 
delayed, the threatening scenes of the previous day were 
repeated. This hastened matters, and on the 10th the 
committee submitted their report. 

It provided for a Tribunal of nine members, to be 
elected by th.e Convention, controlled by no instructions 
whatever, one member at least to be always on duty to 
hear denunciations; the Tiibunal was to pass judgment 
upon every person referred to it by a decree of the Con- 
vention. This Tribunal was empowered to prosecute those 
who had abandoned or neglected to perform their civil 
functions; those who, by their conduct, or by expressing 
their opinions, had attempted to mislead the people; those 
whose writings or speeches would serve to encourage the 
resumption of those prerogatives once enjoyed by despots. 

This report conferring such extraordinary inquisitorial 



m THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

powers upon a single Tribunal was fiercely attacked by 
Vergniaud. '^Eather than consent to the adoption of a 
decree, establishing an inquisition more dreadful than that 
of Venice, we must perish said he.'^ 

The decree was passed, nevertheless, but in a slightly 
modified form. It was to be composed of five judges, a 
jury, one public prosecutor and two assistants — all to be 
ap]Dointed by the Convention. The organization of the 
Tribunal falling thus into the hands of their enemies, 
exasperated the Jacobins, and on the following day a reso- 
lution was adopted by the Cordeliers Club and by one of 
the Sections and subsequently submitted to the Paris Com- 
mune, to the effect, that lienceforth ilie Department of Paris 
sliould exercise the sovereignty of France. Violent demon- 
strations were made against the Convention, but Santerre, 
the Commandant of the National Guard, having refused 
to take part in the insurrection, the project of attacking 
the Convention was abandoned, or rather postponed. 

In the midst of these anarchistic plottings against the 
integrity of the National Convention, in which the 
watchful Vergniaud discovered the subtile hands of the 
Eoyalists, the reverses in the field came to aggravate the 
situation. Dumouriez, having been ordered to leave Hol- 
land, which he had hoped to gain for the French cause, 
to take charge of the army of the Meuse, he returned to 
Paris incensed against the Jacobins, whom he charged 
with the ill-success of the army in Belgium, ''where 
their agents," he said, " had excercised the most despotic 
and vexatious authority; they had everywhere excited the 
populace and frequently employed violence in the meet- 
ings, where union with France was discussed; they had 
seized the plate of the churches, sequestered the rooms of 
the clergy, confiscated the estates of the nobility and 
created the strongest indignation among all classes of the 
Belgian people.'^ He not" only thus freely criticised the 




CAMILLE DESMOULIHS. 



OYEBTHROW OF THE OIR0NDI8T8. 273 

Jacobin leaders, but had some of the Commissioners of 
the Government arrested. On the ]2th of March he 
addressed a letter to the Convention, similar in tone to 
that sent by Lafayette the year before, in which, recur- 
ring to the disorganization of the armies produced by the 
Jacobins, and the vexations practiced upon the Belgians, 
he imputed ''all these evils to the disorganizing spirit 
communicated by Paris to the rest of France, and by 
France to the . countries liberated by French arms." 
" This letter," says Thiers, "' full of boldness, and still 
more of remonstrances — not within the province of a 
General to make — reached the Committee of General Safety 
at the moment when so many accusations were being 
preferred against Dumouriez. On the 18th or 19th, after 
a desperate engagement, the French army was defeated at 
Neerwinden, with a loss of 4,000 killed and of more than 
10,000 more by desertion; and on the 23d Dumouriez 
ordered Brussels to be evacuated. Vexed and discouraged, 
this brave General now sullied his reputation, and for- 
ever branded his narne^ with treason by making the Aus- 
trian General, Mack, with whom he held a conference 
about an armistice, the confidante of his grievances against 
the National Convention." 

Dumouriez^s defection having reached the Convention, 
four Commissioners were dispatched to suspend him from 
his functions and place him under arrest; he not only 
refused to obey, but placedthe Commissioners under guard. 
This desperate step not only compelled him to seek safety 
in flight a few days afterwards, but involved the Girond- 
ists — who were charged with entertaining friendly feelings 
toward the General — in a renewed conflict with the Jaco- 
bins. The crisis in the Convention was precipitated by 
the imprudent charge of Lasource that Danton was in 
secret communication with Dumouriez. 



57^ THE FOES OF TEE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

Like a wounded lion, Danton jumped to his feet and, 
with grinding teeth and menacing gestures, exclaimed : 

" There shall never more be peace between you and the 
Mountain ! between the patriots who demanded the death 
of a tyrant and the cowards who endeavored to save him!" 
Thereupon he moved, '* That the commission appointed 
to inquire into the Dumouriez conspiracy be ordered to 
extend its scope and include those who had conspired 
against the Unity of the RepuMic of France; those who, 
to save the King, would have bartered away their liber- 
ties ; and, finall}^," said he, " I have intrenched myself in 
the citadel of truth. I go forth to proclaim it, and I will 
annihilate the rascals who have dared to accuse me." 

The Committee of Public Safety, as then constituted, 
was considered too conservative for Danton's purposes, and 
a new one composed of his adherents was appointed. On 
the 6th of April this committee was endowed with the 
most summary powers of administration and execution. 
Its deliberations were to be secret ; they were authorized 
to take such measures for the general defense of the inte- 
rior, as well as against foreign attack, as they deemed 
expedient. The orders of the committee, if signed by 
two-thirds of its members, ivere to he executed without 
delay. Thus was this terrible tribunal Committee, which 
lived as long as the Convention itself. 

Now that the instigators of murder had become the 
judges of their enemies, it was Editor Marat^s duty to 
point out the culprits to be driven to the slaughter-pen. 
LA'nii du Peuple having declared, 'Hhat since Dumouriez 
intended to march upon Paris for the object of protecting 
the ^ sound party ^ (as the Girondists were termed), the 
members of this party were no longer worthy of the con- 
fidence of the people/'' Accordingly, a deputation from 
the Jacobin Club appeared at the bar of the house and 
demanded, " that the deputies, Yergniaud, Guadet, Gen- 



OYEItTEItOW OF THE GIR0NBI8TS. 275 

Sonne, Brissot, Barbaroux, Louvet, and Buzot, be placed 
in accusation." 

This was the first open attack upon the Girondists ; it 
was, however, the beginning of the end. Anarchy, organ- 
ized self-will, suspicion, and a brutal disbelief in the good 
intentions of mankind, outside of a radical coterie of self- 
constituted disciples, was now enthroned in unhappy 
France. 

Two days after, an address was received by the Mount- 
ain from a section of which Marat was the President, 
denouncing the majority of the Convention as traitors. 
This address, evidently drafted by Marat, was circulated 
among the members of the Commune^ the clubs and 
sections. 

" Save the Republic,'^ was the burden of its lines; ^'and 
if you — the Mountain — do not feel strong enough, frankly 
say so, and we — Marat^s Section — will charge ourselves 
with the duty. The crisis through which we are now pass- 
ing must be the last. The Republic must triumph or 
France must perish \" 

No language could more fully express the "^ rule or ruin " 
principle of the modern anarchists. To honestly attempt 
to form, discuss, and improve the government through 
united action with the center or right, was not the plan of 
the French anarchists. Marat's conception of a, republican 
form of Government must be adopted, or France must be 
laid waste. L'Etat c'est mot would only satisfy him. His 
language seems to have been well understood by Deputy 
Petion, who, having denounced the address, turned to the 
Mountain, and asked: ^'^How is the section going to save 
the Republic? Is it by robbery and assassination ?'' 

" This is the talk of DumouriezT' shouted some one 
from the Mountain, to which Danton added: '^ There are 
laws and tribunals, and let those who believe the authors 
of the address can be prosecuted come forward and proS' 



S76 TEE FOES OF THE FRENCM REVOLUTION. 

ecute! " This challenge was well understood by the Gir- 
ondists. The days' work had evidently been well matured, 
for Eobespierre, who never spoke at length without care- 
ful preparation, followed Danton in a two hours' speech. 
It was wholly directed against the Girondist party, full of 
inuendos, falsehoods and misrepresentation. ''A power- 
ful faction/' he said, ''is conspiring with Europe to give 
us a King with an aristocratic Constitution, and an illu- 
sory representation composed of two chambers. It expects 
to gain this object through foreign intervention." In 
carefully constructed sentences the Jacobin orator then pro- 
ceeded to unravel an imaginary plan of operations, insid- 
iously connecting the speeches and correspondence of 
members of the Girondist party with General Dumou- 
riez's defection, and finished by denouncing Brissot, 
Guadet, and Vergniaud as the principal leaders of the 
plot. The galleries having been packed for the occasion, 
this speech was repeatedly interrupted by applause. The 
grand opportunity to strike a fatal blow at his enemies 
seemed now at hand, and Eobespierre moved that the 
Eevolutionary Tribunal be instructed to proceed against 
Dumouriez and his accomplices, "the statesmen" — 
another of the names by which Marat satirically desig- 
nated the Girondists. The party was now placed upon 
the defensive, and a reply to the arch-detractor was 
expected by the Convention. Vergniaud was first to rise 
from his seat, but when he began to speak his voice was 
drowned by the deafening yells of the Mountain. The 
President, by repeated use of his gavel, finally succeeded 
in restoring order, when Vergniaud continued: "I shall 
not presume to answer in detail the perfidious net- 
work of calumnies which M. Robespierre has drawn up 
in the silence of his study. He would not speak of his 
services to France; of the use he had made of his voice 
to assist in hurling tryanny from the throne, and which 



OVERTHROW OF THE GIRONDISTS. S77 

now should be used with equal cmj^liasis to strike terror 
into the hearts of those who were endeavoring to substi- 
tute their own tyranny for that of royalty." After vehe- 
mently repelling every accusation of Eobespierre, the 
speaker demanded that the section which had presented 
the address be summoned and ordered to produce its 
minutes. 

Guadetnow took the floor, but his voice could not be 
heard above the din of yells and hisses which greeted him 
from the Mountain. Undaunted, he stood his ground until 
the noise had in a measure subsided, when,withoutdeigning 
to deny the charge of conspiracy with Dumouriez and 
"Egalite" Duke of Orleans, he asked: ^'Who was the 
companion of Dumouriez at the Jacobin Club, at the 
theatre and other places? Your Danton/' 

He then minutely detailed the incendiary ways of the 
Mountain, and finally read a circular, signed by Marat, 
and sent to the Jacobin Clubs all over France, calling 
them ''to arms, and to march upon Paris where they must 
conquer or be buried under the ashes of the Republic."" 

"Yes,"' cried Marat from his loft, "yes! let them 
march ! " 

For this piece of brazen effrontery the Convention 
demanded his immediate arrest. He was taken into cus- 
tody and the act of accusation prepared against him. 
Robespierre hurried oil to the Jacobin Club to praise Dan- 
ton and vindicate Marat. The Commune and the forty- 
eight sections were stirred up to the point of another 
insurrection. 

On the following day the galleries were filled with 
Jacobins to hear the reading of the Act of Accusation 
against Marat. It was received with storms of indigna- 
tion; nevertheless the Convention decreed his temporary 
impiisonment. Using Marat^s detenticfn as a pretext,on the 
15th of April delegates from thirtj^-six sections, headed by 



S7S THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOL UTION. 

Mayor Paclie, presented themselves at the bar of the Con- 
vention and demanded ^'Vcngence! vengcnce for these 
outrages committed against the sacred rights of the peopls ! 
The people have cast from the throne a traitor, and why 
should they allow the traitors of the Convention to go 
unpunished? An address to all the Departments con- 
taining a list of all representatives guilty of treason is 
demanded ! and if approved by the Departments, these 
representatives must retire from the Convention ! They 
are Brissot, Gruadet, Vergniaud, Gensonne, Grrangeneuve, 
Buzot, Barbaroux, Lalle, Biro^eaiT, Pontecoulant, Petion, 
Lanjuinais, Yalaze, Fauchet, Hard}', Louvet, Lehardy, 
Gorsas, Lauthenas, Lasource, Valady and Chambon/' 

The effect produced upon the Convention by the read- 
ing of these names may be fairly imagined by supposing 
a similar delegation of politicians from the wards of the 
city of New York to have aj)peared at the doors of the 
first Continental Congress and demanded the expulsion of 
Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, James Madison and 
John Adams. 

The cheering of the Jacobins and the Mountain having 
subsided, Eepresentative Boyer-Fonfrede hastened to the 
platform, and in an eloquent manner expressed his disap- 
pointment that his name had been omitted from this list 
of illustrious names. " So are we ! So are we ! " shouted 
a hundred voices from the right and center of the house. 
Continuing, he examined the legality of an address emanat- 
ing from the people of one Department. ''Suppose each 
Department arrogate to itself the same right. The 
Department of Paris has used a legitimate prerogative, or 
it proposes to attack the National Convention. If the 
latter proves to be its purpose, a striking example of 
severity should be meted out to it."^ This view of the q^^es- 
tion being adopted by a majority of the Convention, on 
the 18tli the address was declared calumnious. 



OVERTHROW OF THE GIRONDISTS. S79 

As will be seen^ the Conservatives still had control of 
tlie Convention, and, in any other part of France than in 
Paris, must have succeeded in piloting the country to a safe 
harbor. 

On the 24th of April Marat was brought to trial before 
the Eevolutionary Tribunal, which Tribunal, being com- 
posed of his constituents, cleared him in three minutes. 
Immediately surrounded by a mob of gesticulating women, 
Sa7is Culottes carrying pikes, and detachments of armed 
sections, Marat was taken in charge by his friends and 
conducted to the doors of the Convention. Two city 
officials led the procession. Marat, borne aloft upon the 
shoulders of a sapper, his brow wreathed with a crown of 
laurel, was carried in triumph to the middle of the hall. 
Standing by his side, the sapper thus addressed the Presi- 
dent : '^Citizen President, we return to you the worthy 
Marat ! Marat, the steadfast friend of the people ! the 
people will always be the friend of Marat, and, if his 
head must fall, the head of the sapper must fall first." As 
the man uttered thesB words, he brandished his ax in the 
air, and the galleries applauded with all the might and 
voice at their command. The Mountain received Marat 
with rounds of applause, which had the effect of restoring 
him to his usual state of assurance. Mounting the plat- 
form with indecent haste, he addressed the Convention as 
follows : 

'^Citizens! indignant at seeing a villainous faction 
betraying the Eepublic, I endeavored to unmask it, and to 
put the rope about its neck. It resisted me by launching 
against me a decree of Accusation. I have come off vic- 
torious! The faction is humbled, but not crushed. 
Waste not your time in decreeing triumphs. Defend 
yourselves with all your power \" 

While descending the platform, the mob in the Galler- 
ies and the Mountain rent the air with '' Vive Marat ! '^ 



2B0 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

"yivQ L' Ami dn Peuplel" ''Vive la Montagne!" At 
the close of tlie session the victorious statesman retired to 
the Jacobin club, where he received another ovation. These 
violent scenes at Paris, and the constant danger to which 
the Eepresentatives were exposed, filled the people of the 
provinces with excusable anxiety. Their treatment, how- 
ever, was not the only grievance the provincials complained 
of against the Paris agitators. They saw their ambition was 
to rule France as Rome had ruled her provinces. This 
sentiment was strongest in the departments represented 
by the Girondists, and protest after protest soon began to 
pour in upon its members. These, however, were but ex- 
pressions of individual sympathy; no organized resistance 
against this threatened anarchistic supremacy supported 
these remonstrances. On the other hand, the situation 
among the enthusiastic revolutionists — the reckless and 
abandoned, who by great political commotions have every- 
thing to gain and nothing to lose — wore quite a different 
aspect. In hilarious throngs they proceeded to enrole 
themselves under the Jacobin banner. 

Every city, town and village added largely to their 
membership. Being of the most aggressive class, ready to 
resort to personal violence if necessary, they managed at 
elections to accomplish their ends. The peaceful citizen, 
averse to giving countenance to dishonest dealings, and 
giving way to the political huxter, had left the field to 
such, and, as a consequence, the municipal, town and 
village authorities at this time were mostly of the radical 
stripe — the National Convention having been compelled 
by force of circumstances to clothe these municipalities 
with extraordinary functions. These corporatious were 
used to terrorize timid citizens, and to prevent public dem- 
onstrations unfavorable to Jacobin rule. 

Thus, it came to pass, that the provincial governments 
were guided by the Jacobin Club at Paris through its 



OVEBTEROW OF THE GIRONDISTS. 281 

country auxiliaries. ' The party of the Mountain now 
resolved to push legislation far beyond the wishes of these 
orderly, industrious and conservative people — republican 
in sentiment, but unorganized. 

The latest indignity offered to their representatives by 
the thirty-six sections of the Paris Department had aroused 
a feeling of resentment throughout this heretofore sluggish 
mass. Collisions, riots, and open revolt followed. At 
Lyons, Bordeaux, and Marseilles the feeling was unani- 
mous against further anarchistic supremacy at the capital. 
In the meantime the insurrection in the Vendee had 
assumed gigantic proportions. It extended all along the 
coast from the Gironde to the mouth of the Seine. In 
Normandy, the Bretagne, the Poiton, the Anjou, and the 
Vendee the peasants were all in arms against the Kepublic. 
They had accepted the revolution which gave them the 
Constitution of 1791, but the excesses of the last two years 
had disgusted them with the Republic itself, and they pined 
for a return to the old regime. 

As before stated, in the Western part of France a more 
friendly feeling had existed between the nobles and the peas- 
ants. The social gulf separating them had not been so 
wide. The priests were, also, upon better terms with 
their parishioners. Among these, violent changes pro- 
duced violent sentiments. The Mountain and the Jaco- 
bins endeavored to associate this discontent in the Vendee 
with the Girondist conspiracy. They charged the anti- 
Jacobin demonstrations at Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles and 
other places to their instigation — all uniting in a grand 
conspiracy against the Eepublic. In consequence, from 
the 15th to the 18th of May, Paris was thrown into a 
great state of excitement by thousands of remonstrances 
pouring in from the country. The inhabitants of Bor- 
deaux, in reply to the charge that they formed part of the 
Vendeean conspiracy, declared, in their address to the 



2S2 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

Convention, that they would raise two armies, one to 
march against the Vendee, the other to march against 
Paris to exterminate the anarchists who had dared to 
offer violence to the National representation. This address 
seemed to rekindle the courage of the Couvention. On 
the 19th, Deputy Guadet introduced a resolution to the 
effect that the President he clothed with greater authority; 
in fact, sufficient authority to declare whoever dared to 
interrupt the deliberations of the Convention with threats 
should be declared disloyal and counter-revolutionary. 

In support of this resolution, he said: ^' In England, 
when a majority endeavored to oppose the fury of a 
factious minority, that minority cried, ' Oppression,' and 
succeeded by means of this cry in finally oppressing the 
majority itself. It called around \t patriots par excellence, 
such was the title assumed by a misled multitude in 
England to which this minority promised pillage and a 
division of the lands. This continued appeal of these 
patriots against the tyranny of the majority led to the 
proceeding known as the 'Purgation of Parliament' — a 
proceeding in which the butcher. Pride, was the chief 
actor. One hundred and fifty members were expelled 
from Parliament, and the minority, consisting of fifty or 
sixty members, was left in possession of the government. 
What was the result? These Patriots par excellence, tools 
of Cromwell, whom he led to the commission of folly after 
folly, were in turn expelled, their own crimes serving their 
leader and the usuper as a good pretext to be rid of them." 
Turning to Legender, a butcher, Danton and La Croix, 
Guadet continued : "^Cromwell one day addressed these 
Patriots par excellence, who declared they alone were 
capable of saving the country, telling them 'to begone!' 
Saying to one, 'Thou art a robber;' to another, 'thou art 
a drunkard;' to this one, ' thou hast fattened upon public 
money;' to that oue, 'thou art a whore-master and a 




BARAS. 



OVERTHROW OF THE GIRO^^DTSTS. 283 

frequenter of places of bad repute. Begone! all of }'ou, 
and give place to Godly men/ And they did give place/" 
The parallel was applicable, and the Convention saw it. 
The resolution was adopted, but hardly had the vote been 
counted when Marat, profiting by the uproar in the 
galleries, appeared in the tribune, and demanded to 
know the names of the promoters of these royalistic 
decrees, declaring that he would never be satisfied until 
France was delivered from these conspirators against the 
life of the Republic. In passing up the aisles to his seat, 
he pointed to this and that member, calling out: ^'Thou 
art one of them, and the people will soon see that justice 
is done to thee.'" 

Guadet, promptly returning to the encounter, said; 
''The evil is with the anarchistic authorites of Paris. I 
therefore propose their deposition, to be replaced by the 
Presidents of the forty-eight sections. I further move, that 
another Assembly be elected which shall meet at Bourges, 
when this Convention shall adjourn."" Both resolutions 
were upon the point of being adopted, when Barrere*came 
forward Avitli a substitute authorizing the appointment of 
a committee of twelve members to examine into the acts 
of the Commune of Paris during the last month; its 
plots against the National Convention, etc. The out- 
cry of the oppression of the majority (the Girondists) 
was now raised by the Jacobins and a repetition of the 
September massacres was proposed to clear the Convention 
of traitors. On the 24th, the committee informed the 
Convention they were ready to report, being in possession 
of sufficient information to ensure the apprehension of 
some of the conspirators. On the strength of the report 
several Jacobins were arrested, among them Hebert, 
the editor of a foul sheet called Le Pere 'Duchesne, which 
had advocated the seizure and assassination of a large 
number of representatives. 



28Jt THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

Hebert being a member of the self-constituted Com- 
mune, this body resolved to make his case the common 
cause. Accordingly, on the 25th, a petition for the release 
of Hebert, and a justice of the peace, also arrested, was 
presented to the Convention. The petition was refused. 
This exasperated the Commune, which in less than two days 
succeeded in securing the support of twenty-seven sections, 
a majority in the city, for Hebert^s release. On the evening 
of the 27th, an armed mob of several thousand appeared 
at the door of the Convention. It was ten o^clock and 
motions to adjourn were immediately made. During the 
excitement the President, Isnard, left the chair, when it 
was instantly occupied by Herault-Sechelles, a radical of 
of the most violent type. 

The mob now crowded into the hall, and a decree 
was forced through, by which the prisoners were released, 
and the commission of twelve dissolved. The day fol- 
lowing a large number of members demanded the repeal 
of the decrees which had been extorted from the Conven- 
tion "under threats of personal violence. In support of the 
motion to repeal, Guadet said: ''The hall blockaded by the 
people, the guards of the Assembly dispersed, the members 
terrorized by threats of violence in the galleries, the depu- 
ties prevented from leaving or entering — all this is suffi- 
cient proof that the Convention was overawed, and this vote 
was the result of the most sinister influence." The decree 
was repealed as far as the dissolution of the commission 
of twelve was concerned. " You have performed an act 
of justice in liberating the prisoners," said Danton, ''but 
if the commission which you have reinstated retains its 
tyrannical powers, I declare to you, after proving that we 
surpass our enemies in prudence and discretion, we will 
prove that we can surpass them in daring aiid revolutionary 
energy." 

On the 29th the news of the defeat of the Army of the 



OVERTHROW OF TEE OIRONDTSTS. SSl> 

ISTortli, in the Vendee, and on the Spanish frontier, threw 
the population of the capital into a fresh state of excite- 
ment, and on the 30th the Central Committee of the sec- 
tions declared itself in permanence, and resolved to resort 
to insurrection for the purpose of saving the cause of the 
people, which was threatened by aristocratic factions.'' 
Mayor Pache was ordered to inform the Commune of this 
decision, and, in order to render the resolution imme- 
diately effective, it was further resolved ''that they pro- 
ceed to the Convention and demand for the last time the 
dissolution of the commission of twelve, and the arrest of 
all of its memliers; that in. case of refusal to comply, the 
tocsin should be sounded, the alarm gun fired, the generaJe 
beaten, and the barriers closed." 

This ultimatum was presented to the Convention, 
which, not having a quorum, was unable to consider it. 
The preliminaries for a popular uprising having been per- 
fected, however, the Central Committee declared Paris in 
a state of insurrection. It gave notice to the Paris Com- 
mune that all existing__authorities had been dissolved by 
i]\& people, but, at the same time, had invested the Council- 
General of the Commune with unlimited powers. This 
purely anarchistic coup d'etat was befittingly crowned by 
the appointment of the disreputable H^nriot to the chief 
command of the National Guards. 

" Le General Henriot,'' says Michelet, ''lackey, and 
police-spy under the old regime, had passed through many 
a campaign — at the street corners and public places — like 
the charlatan tooth-extractors, in general uniform. He 
had been arrested as a common thief and incarcerated in 
Bicetre. There was no other man who could be heard at 
an equal distance; c'etait une queule terrible (an awful jaw). 
The Sans-Culottes of the Faubourg Saint Marceau selected 
him as their captain. An empty wooden liead, to which 
brandy alone afforded life and voice; on great occasions 



B^e THE FOES OF THE FRENCH BErOLITTIOIi' 

Ilenriot always took care to be drunk." The heroic deeds 
of this valiant warrior were confined to the atrocious 
murders committed during-the previous September upon 
inoffensive persons. This was the creature which hence- 
forth was to hold supreme command of the military forces 
of Paris. 



CHAPTEK XXX. 

THE DECREE OF ACCUSATION PASSED UPON THE TWENTY-TWO 
GIRONDISTS. 

The representatives who had been traduced during the 
■way, expecting to be murdered in cold blood, had spent 
the night mostly outside of their domicils. Danton was 
the first to arrive at the hall of the Convention on the fol- 
lowing day. His radiant countenance and calm com- 
posure elicited the remark from Louvet to Guadet, 
" Observe the horrible hopes that illuminate that hideous 
face!'' ''True/' replied Guadet. "To-day Claudius 
exiles Cicero. '" 

The Convention having been called to order, the Min- 
ister of Justice, and the Mayor of Paris presented tbem- 
selves,and, in explanation, declared that Henriot had ordered 
the alarm gnu to be fired in spite of their protests and in 
defiance of the decree prohibiting the raising of an alarm 
under penalty of death. The demand made for Henriot's 
arrest was opposed by his friends of the Mountain. In 
the meantime the hall was being filled with so-called 
petitioners, demanding the suspension of the Committee 
of Twelve and the arrest ,of its members. 

Barrere, always temporizing, now moved to abolish \he 
Committee of Twelve, but to place the armed forces under 
the orders of the Convention. Just then, L'Hullier, the 
Procureur of Paris, appeared before the Convention bring- 
ing with him the intentions of the Commune and the 
Central Committee of the sections; he accused the Girond- 
ists of being the instigators of the revolt in the Vendee, 
and denounced the plans for federalization, declaring that 

SS7 



iSS THE FGE8 OF THE FRENCH liETCL JIT ION. 

tlie City of Paris (meaning, no doubt, '^Generar' Henriot 
and his Sans-Culottes) would perish for the maintainance 
of republican unity. Eobespierre sustained this demand 
of the anarchists, and tlius oj)posed Barrere's proposition 
to place the armed forces of the cit}^ under the orders of 
the National Convention; he insisted upon the summary 
suppression of the Committee of Twelve, and upon taking 
severe measures against its members. Robespierre con- 
cluded his speech by demanding the adoption of a decree 
of accusation against all the accomplices of Dumouriez, 
and against those designated by the petitioners. A decree 
almost substantially embodying Robesjoierre's demand 
but omitting the names of the accused was adopted. 

This infamous and high-handed act is generally, but 
unjustly, laid at the door of the inhabitants of Paris. But 
the people of Paris, those constituting the well-regulated 
society of the capital — from the workman at his bench to 
the banker at his desk — had no hand in these outrageous 
scenes. This fact is substantiated by official data of the 
elections being held at this time. They show that of 
100,000 voters registered in the forty-eight sections (wards), 
less than 5,000 voted, and this number represented about 
the strength of the Jacobins, most of whom were recruited 
from the provinces, or outside the great city. 

The anarchists were not satisfied with their victory of 
the 31st of May; the twenty-two branded Grirondists still 
held their seats in the Convention, and the insurrectionary 
assembly — that is the self-constituted rulers, callingthem- 
selves ^' The Central Committee,^' were still sitting in per- 
manence. It began to dawn even upon the trusting mind 
of Barrere, that the anarchists of the Commune had 
arrogated to themselves the sovereignty of France; said he, 
on the 1st of June, ^'We must see whether it is the 
Commune of Paris that represents the French Republic, 
or whether it is the Convention." 



THE DEGREE PASSED UPON THE GIRONDISTS. SS9 

While Barrere was thus expressing his doubts as to the 
political status of the two bodies, the Central Committee 
Avas arranging a definite plan to move upon the National 
Convention. 

Upon Marat's motion it was resolved to surround the 
Convention with an armed force, and to prevent its mem- 
bers from leaving the hall until it had decreed the accusa- 
tion of the twenty-two Girondists. The drunken Henriot, 
in command of the military, was charged with the execu- 
tion of this infamous order. 

From the 1st to the 2d of June, the alarm-bell never 
ceased toiling through the long night. At day-break the 
signal gun was fired, and in a short time 80,000 men were 
in arms, only about 5,000 of these, however, were known 
to be loyal to the Jacobins and were under the orders of 
" GeneraF^ Henriot, the remainder being mere lookers-on, 
without, knowledge of what was to be done, and without 
a leader to organize them against the proposed invasion of 
the National Convention. 

'^General'' Henriot, moving his men close up to the 
entrance of the hall, and a large number of gunners, with 
lighted matches, being placed in position to guard against 
any outside interference, the members of the Convention, 
it will be seen, were completely at his mercy. 

Every member was in his seat except those proscribed 
by the Central Committee, these having been prevailed 
upon by friends to remain away from the session. 

Lanjuinais, the great barrister, who at the age of 
twenty-two had won by public competition the professor- 
ship of ecclesiastical law in the City of Eennes, was in his 
seat, and, in spite of the shouting and confusion in the 
galleries, succeeded in making himself heard. 

^' As long as we are allowed to speak here," said he, 
" I shall not permit the character of the peoples' repre- 
sentatives to be degraded in my person." Down! down! 



290 THE FOES OF THE FRE^^OJI BEVOLVTIOK. 

yelled the Mountain. " A gathering takes place/' con- 
tinues Lanjuinais; *^it appoints a committee to foment 
a revolt; a commandant is placed at the head of the 
insurrectionists; all this is permitted, and — " 

The cries "of ^''Down! Down!'' from the Mountain, 
added to the continuous and violent threats from the gal- 
leries, at this point drowned the voice of the speaker, but 
the defender of his party remained at his post. During 
the confusion, the younger Robespierre, accompanied by 
others, attempted to drag Lonjuinais from the platform. 
They did not succeed, however, and when order was 
restored he closed his speech with the demand that the 
insurrectionary committee be dissolved. No attention 
was paid to his motion. 

The Convention appeared to be completely overcome 
by the vociferating mob. As the speaker was descending 
the platform Billaud-Varennes and Tallien asked that 
the Paris petitioners be allowed to state their demands. 
The Convention, recovering in a measure from its fright, 
paid no attention to this request, and '^ passed to the order 
of the day." This was a slight not to be borne. Pande- 
monium, with its whole council-chamber of evil spirits, 
could not have produced a more tumultuous scene. The 
galleries and aisles of the hall were packed with men and 
women from the lowest walks of life. 

Streaming out of the hall they rent the air with the 
cry, '^ To arms! to arms!'' This was more than the weak 
nerves of the bourgeois members of the center could with- 
stand, and the motion was made to concede the demands 
of the petitioners, by decreeing the temporary arrest of 
the twenty-two Deputies proscripted by the Commune. 
"No! no!" was the loud jirotest from the Eight; "we 
must all share the fate of our colleagues." At this junc- 
ture Barrere appeared upon the platform, and, in the 
name of the Committee of Public Safety, j)resented its 
report in reference to the accused Deputies. 



THE DECREE PASSED VPOJSf TEE GIRONDISTS. S91 

''The Committee," he said, ''had not deemed it nec- 
essary to adopt the measure of arrest ; they had preferred 
to address themselves to the patriotism, the generosity 
and love of country of the accused members, and to ask 
them to temporarily suspend their powers." In conclu- 
sion he recommended the adoption of a decree to this 
effect. The Deputies, Isnard, Lanjuinais, Fauchet, and 
Dussault, at once tendered their resignations. But Lan- 
juinais arose, and, with dignity, exclaimed : "Expect of 
me neither a suspension nor the resignation of my pow- 
ers. The sacrificer of old, when his victim was dragged 
to the altar, covered it with flowers and chaplets, and 
without insult. The sacrifice of our powers is required ; 
but the sacrifice ought to be voluntary. It can not be vol- 
untary. We can not leave this place, either by the door 
or the windows ; the cannons are aimed in our faces : we 
dare not express our sentiments !" 

Barbaroux followed, and, with equal courage, refused 
to resign. "If,^' said he, "the Convention formally 
demands my resignation, I shall comply. But how can I 
resign my powers when hundreds are writing to me from 
the different Departments of France, assuring me that I 
have performed the duties entrusted to me faithfully, and 
exhorting me to still continue in the same course. I have 
sworn to die at my post, and I shall keep my oath ! " Sev- 
eral resignations now followed, Vv^hen the j)roceedings of 
the Convention were interrupted by a Vigorous complaint 
from Eepresentative Dussaulx, stating that he and others 
had been thrust back by the sentries in attempting to 
leave the hall. La Croix, of the Mountain, even, appeared 
upon the platform with his shirt torn to tatters, and pro- 
tested against this attempt to terrorize the Representa- 
tives. 

The Sergeant-at-Arms being called before the House, 
declared that the men he had placed at the doors had 



S92 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

been removed and others substituted; that lie and liis sub- 
alterns had been prohibited from leaving the hall "by 
strangers with mustaches (a fashion for wearing the beard 
not usual at that time). 

Barrere informed the Convention that at that very 
moment money was being distributed among the mob 
carousing outside. The members, becoming thoroughly 
aroused to the danger threatening their very existence,, 
adopted the advice of Barrere, to place themselves under, 
the protection of the ISTational Guard. The President left 
his chair and, followed by two- thirds of the members, pro- 
ceeded to the door. The Mountain, almost wholly cog- 
nizant of the conspiracy, remained in their seats, but, 
uj)on consultation, concluded to follow their colleagues 
to save appearances. The members, not less than 700, 
met no obstruction until General Henriot and his staff 
barred the way, whereupon the President of the Conven- 
tion ordered him and his armed force to retire. But the 
" General " replied with emphasis: ''Until the twenty-two 
Deputies are surrendered, no one shall leave this hall.^^ 
The President then called upon the soldiers before him 
'Ho arrest this rebel. ^^ Henriot, drawing his sabre, in a 
flash turned to his troops and called out : 

" Aux Amies ! Canonniers a vos pieces ! ! " 

The cannoneers seized their burning fuses and the 
cavalry drew their sabers. 

Thus threatened, the procession filed to the right, along 
the line of troops, who were continually yelling in their 
ears, " Vive la Repuilique ! Vive la Montague ! A has le 
cote Droit! A la Guillotine les Girondists ! Reaching the 
gate of the Place du Carousel, the outlet to the street, 
their passage was stopped. Turning and passing through 
the Tuilleries into the garden, there they were met with 
similar cries. Just bej'ond, upon reaching the old bridge 
Tournant, an armed mob was encountered, howling, 




ROBESPIERRE. 



1 



THE DEGREE PASSED UPON THE GIRONDISTS. 293 

'^ Vive Marat!" Upon closer examination, this arch trai- 
tor was seen at its head gesticulating in his wonted man- 
ner. Approaching the members with inconceivable audac- 
ity, he called out: 

'' In the name of the people, / summon you to return 
to the posts you have thus cowardly adandoned ! " Strange 
as it may now seem, the Convention obeyed him and re- 
entered the hall. Thus did unbridled anarchy triumph 
over law, order, and the real patriots of France, on the 2d 
of June, 1793. Upon reassembling, Couthon, of the 
Mountain, in the face of what had taken place, arose and 
said: ^'Citizens, all the members must now feel sure of their 
liberty. You have marched out against the wishes of the 
people and have found them patient, generous and inca- 
pable of harming their representatives; but they are 
embittered against the few who would enslave them. 
Since you are now at liberty to continue your delibera- 
tions, I demand, for the present, not a decree of accusa- 
tion against the twenty-two members accused, but a decree 
prescribing domiciliary arrests, including the Committee 
of Twelve." This list was now examined by Marat, who, 
in defiance of the Convention, substituted and added 
such names as suited his pleasure. 

The list being thus completed, the Eight demanded 
the vote on this question be taken by calling the roll, 
hoping that the more timid, in being compelled to vote 
publicly, rather than dishonor themselves by countenanc- 
ing such revolting injustice would defeat it. Two or three 
protested "that, being threatened by cannon and bayonets 
they would not vote.'" Whereupon two-thirds of the Con- 
vention arose and declared themselves not willing to vote 
under the circumstances. Accordingly, only about forty 
members, of the Eight, cast their votes against the decree. 
''This decree, therefore,'" says Meillans, ''was adopted 
by the Mountain, assisted by a suflScient number of 



29 It THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

strangers, who had taken the vacant seals- of members 
and whose functions they had usurped." There was, 
however, this proviso to the decree, namely, that the 
persons designated be placed under arrest, to remain in 
their respective domicils with a municipal guard stationed 
at the door. 

Thus, standing upon the ramparts of rational liberty, 
defending inch by inch the rights of their constituents, 
the purity of representative government, and the fair 
reputation of the Eepublic, the official life of this heroic 
band of French patriots, known as the members of the 
Gironde, was with systematic brutality crushed out. 

A descendant of one of these heroes, M. Gaudet, 
justly says: *'They marched against the excesses of anar- 
chy with the same ardor as against monarchy and the 
foreign foe. They triumphed over the latter enemies of 
their countrymen, but their Titan-like efforts could not 
prevail against organized anarchy." Says Thiers, at the 
close of his narrative of the terrible scenes of the 2d of 
June: " Now, all legality having been overcome, all 
remonstrances stifled with the suspension of the Girond- 
ists^ and the danger becoming more alarming, that terrible 
dictatorship, composed of the Eevolutionary Tribunal 
and the Committee of Public Safety, was completed. 
Henceforth scenes are enacted a hundred times more 
horrible than those which aroused the indignation of the 
Girondists." As for them, their political history is fin- 
ished. All that remains to be added is the account of 
their heroic death. 



CHAPTEK XXXI. 

TRIAL AND EXECUTION OP THE GIRONDISTS-DEATH OF 
MARAT. 

^ The sentiments of the Girondists during this ordeal are 
pathetically expressed in a letter written to his constitu- 
ents by Gonsonne. 

"1, Armand Gensonne, RejDresentative of the French 
people^ convinced that I am nearing the time when 
I shall fall a victim to the conspiracies of a faction against 
liberty and the Eepublic^, a faction whose guilty efforts I have 
not ceased to oppose, and in view of the fact that at this very 
moment, while I am hastily tracing these lines, I have 
reason to believe the National Convention will be forced 
to order my arrest, or to permit it, and that I may expect 
at any moment to fall at the demand of a popular move- 
ment, or of Judicial assassination, I declare to the citi- 
zens of my department, and to all France, that I shall 
welcome death if, thereby, the establishment of the Ee- 
public and the happiness of the people caii be secured. I 
declare that I have never ceased to be wholly devoted to 
France, and with no other ambition than to perform the 
mandates of her people with courage and integrity of pur- 
pose; that my only desire has been the adoption of a Ee- 
publican Constitution; that I have lived, and shall die a 
Eepnblican. 

''I beseecb, my fellow-citizens of Bordeaux, in partic- 
ular, and the Eepublicans of all France, to carefully scru- 
tinize the charges — if there be such — which may be brought 
against me, etc., etc. 

''In these exciting events, during which I shall, in all 
probability, meet my death, I conjure all good citizens^ 

295 



£96 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

and especially yon of the South, not to charge the excesses 
committed here to a majority of the people of Paris — 
under the circumstances they cannot prevent it — and that 
you remember the services this great city has rendered to 
the Revolution^ and reserve your wrath for the miscreants 
Avho have planned this infamous conspiracy against her. 
Prepared for the Avorst, in thought I embrace my fellow- 
citizens, all friends of liberty, and of the French Repub- 
lic. Adding to my services for my country my life-blood, 
my last sigh shall be for France, and my last words, ' Vive 
la Repuhliqiie! ' " 

Three days after the adoption of the decree of suspen- 
sion. Representative Fonfrede appeared before the Con- 
vention and requested immediate action in the disposition 
of the Girondists' case. "1'l is necessary," said he, ''to use 
all possible expedition in proving the innocence of our 
colleagues. I have staid here for no other object than to 
aid in their defense. I swear to you that an armed force 
is marching from Bordeaux to avenge the violence offered 
their Representatives.''' 

This threat excited the Mountain and had an opposite 
effect to the one desired by Fonfrede. 

To say that the citizens not only of Bordeaux, but the 
people of every Department of France were in a fever of 
excitement, would but faintly express the fact. They 
Avere ready and anxious to take up arms. Many of the 
Girondists, having escaped from Paris, were now engaged 
in their respective Departments organizing a general move- 
ment against the anarchists at the capital. 

*'As early as the 13th of June," says Thiers, ''the 
Department of Eure met together and raised the first 
signal of insurrection." The National Convention, it was 
declared, being no longer a free, representative body, it 
became all good citizens to make it so. It was resolved 
that a force of 4,000 men be raised for the purpose of 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF THE GIRONDISTS. 1SD7 

marching to Paris. Commissioners were sent to the 
neighboring Department to urge co-operation. Two com- 
missioners sent by the Convention to the Department of 
Calvados to accelerate the organization of troops, were 
arrested. Normandy had agreed to send representatives 
to an extraordinary meeting to be held at Caen for the 
purpose of forming themselves into a confederation. All 
the Departments of Bretagne, such as Cotes- du-JSTord, Fin- 
istere, Morbihan, Vilaine, etc., passed similar resolutions, 
and dispatched commissioners to Rennes to establish there 
a central authority for Bretagne. 

The Department of the Basin of the Loire, except the 
section occupied by the Vendeeans, followed the general 
movement. They offered to send commissioners to Bour- 
ges for the purpose of holding a Convention, to be com- 
posed of two Deputies from each Department, the object 
of which should be the organization of a force to march 
upon Paris for the liberation of the arrested Eepresenta- 
tives. At Bordeaux the excitement increased daily. All 
the constituted authorities assembled at a meeting, called 
''The People^s Commission of Public Welfare," and 
resolved to raise an armed force, at the same time dis- 
patching commissioners to all the Departments inviting 
united action. Toulouse had raised a thousand men. 
Its authorities declared they no longer recognized the 
authority of the Paris Convention and were ready to form 
a federation with the Departments of the South. The 
upper Departments, Tarn, Lot, Garonne, etc., followed 
the example set by Bordeaux and Toulouse. Nimes 
declared itself in a state of resistance, and Marseilles 
had a force of six thousand men in readiness, while 
Lyons pledged itself to muster thirty thousand. Thus, in 
an incredibly short space of time, seventy-two of the 
eighty-three Provincial Departments of France were in 
arms against the usurpers in Paris. 



S98 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

It was France against a handful of demagogues and a 
few newspapers styling themselves the French people. 
Their principle at stake still continued to be, '' The Indi- 
visibility of the Kepublic/' The Unity of France, as 
understood by Marat, Danton and Eobespierre, however, 
was not a unity of principles, purposes and aspirations, 
but the unity of Nero and Caligula, with this difference, 
that while the latter strengthened their thrones in the 
imperial palaces, the former strengthened theirs among 
the mobs in the streets. 

Alarmed at the threatening state of affairs in the De- 
partments, Barrere proj)osed to the Convention the policy 
of compromises. Conciliatory measures, however, were 
tantamount to a return to law and order — tlie rule of the 
majority and the punishment of the criminal and lawless; 
a gloomy future for such as had defied all law and whose 
only hope lay in continued disorder and agitation. The 
battle of the Mountain against the earnest, honest and 
wise Girondists had been waged for political supremacy ; 
it must now be continued for personal safety. 

The Girondists were charged by the Mountain with 
favoring a system of government for France similar to that 
but recently adopted by the United States; in fact. Feder- 
alism was the chief accusation brought against them. On 
the other hand Marat, Danton, Eobespierre, and their fol- 
lowers, were desciples of the socialistic theory of !N"ational 
Supremacy, which system for organization they had styled 
"The Unity of France," or " Indivisibility of the Repub- 
lic." 

A socialist panegyrist of Danton, in a recent work, 
calls him " thegreatest of French Statesmen," "the power 
behind Evolution." " That power," he continues, "which 
irresistibly pushes the stupid, selfish and indolent multi- 
tude onward; that power which raises a comparatively few 
to co-operate with him." As to Danton's co-operators. 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF THE GIRONDISTS. 299 

Marat and Eobespierre^ tliey were sufficient to push the 
stupid, selfish and indolent multitude of Paris on to such 
a state of frenzy that it was easy to establish any system 
of government, or to prevent any from being estab- 
lished. 

Sentimentalism was not an attribute of Danton^s char- 
acter. He was a man watli a powerful organization, men- 
tally and physically. With him it was rule or ruin, and 
conciliation at this juncture meant ruin. The law of 
evolution, which in 1789 substituted liberty for absolu- 
tism and placed a ballot in the hand of every French citi- 
zen, by which act four million freemen were expected to 
work out the destiny of France, was interfered with by 
the Dantons and Marats, and tlierefore these men were 
traitors to their country, and deserved to be dealt with as 
public enemies. The crisis in the Convention which had 
placed the Mountain in possession of the National 
authority, its leaders, rejecting all compromises, proceeded 
to use it against the country itself. 

Danton, adroitly drawing a parallel between the past 
dangers which the Eepublic had happily escaped and her 
present emergency, declared the country could be saved 
only by the immediate and energetic assertion of National 
authority. 

The Convention was thereupon moved to the adoption 
of a decree directed against all the Departments, requir- 
ing them to retract their proceedings within twenty-four 
hours after its reception, upon penalty of being outlawed. 
It further decreed that the people of Paris had, by their 
insurrection of the 2d of June, deserved well of the coun- 
try ; that the departmental or municipal authorities 
could neither quit their places nor remove from one town 
to another ; that they could not correspond together, and 
that all the Commissioners sent from Department to 
Department for the purpose of forming a coalition were 



300 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH PiEVOLUTIOi^. 

to be immediately seized by the good citizens and sent to 
Paris under escort. 

The only good citizens in the Provinces, in the opinion 
of theMountain^ were the JacobinS;, who were now ordered 
to seize the Representatives of the people and all actively 
opposed to their methods, and hurry them off to Paris to 
be guillotined. 

In the meantime^, the Departments of the North 
continued to organize for resistance, and at Bordeaux the 
sentiment against the leaders of the Coup d'etat of the 2nd of 
June was indescribable. Along the banks of the Ehone, 
and from Marseilles to Lyons, the inhabitants were making 
preparations for a general junction of the federative forces, 
for the purpose of marching upon Paris. When the 
obstacles to be overcome are considered, the failure of the 
enterprise is not a matter of wonder. In the first place, 
the movements of the bodies of citizens was necessarily 
slow, while the Convention hesitated not an instant. 
Communication between the Federates was difficult, con- 
sequently combined action was almost impossible. The 
Mountain, on the other hand, acted in perfect unison, their 
movements being directed in the name of France. 

The hastily organized forces of the Departments, 
although full of patriotisms, were undrilled and undis- 
ciplined, hardly more than a body of recruits, while the 
Convention had under control the regular army of France, 
thoroughly disciplined and accustomed to strict obedience 
to orders. The Convention issued its decrees with the 
weight and prestige of legal authority, while the forces of 
the Departments stood in the attitude of rebels to the 
Eepublic. As might have been expected, the decrees of 
the Convention intimidated the politic and half-hearted, 
who submitted at the outset; the Departmental authori- 
ties, dependent upon the Convention for their tenure of 
office, being threatened with outlawry, submitted one after 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF THE QIR0NDIST8. 301 

another to the decrees of the Convention. Thus, within 
the space of three months, with the exception of the larger 
cities, all resistance to the usurping power at Paris had 
been overcome, and all hope of establishing a representa- 
tive government in France abandoned by the Conservatives. 
The following decree passed against the people of Bor- 
deaux, on the 6th of August, will serve to show the man- 
ner in which the country was brought under the rule of 
terror: 

'' All the acts performed by the gathering at Bordeaux, 
called 'The People's Commission of Public Safety' are 
hereby annulled, as destructive to liberty and the sov- 
ereignty of the French people. 

" Second. All members composing this gathering, as 
well as those who promoted, abetted and adhered to the 
acts there promulgated, are hereby declared traitors to 
their country, and outlawed. Their property shall be con- 
fiscated for the benefit of the Eepublic.^' 

While the inhabitants of the Departments were thus 
being subdued, an event occurred at Paris which fur- 
nished additional material to the Mountain for exciting 
the multitude still further against the Girondists. It was 
the assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday. 

This young woman, aged but twenty-five, was born at 
St, Saturins. She was handsome, witty, and endowed 
with a masculine understanding. Deeply impressed with 
the truth of her father's publications on the privileges and 
local independence of his Province, an enthusiast for 
republican institutions, based upon law, the Girondists 
appeared to her as the embodiment of these principles, 
and when the news of the outrage upon these Deputies 
reached her quiet home, she at once determined to be 
their avenger. The war in her Department (Calvados) 
had begun, and believing the death of the usurpers at 
Paris would insure victory, she resolved to perform that 



S02 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH L EVOLUTION. 

greatest of all acts, the consecration of her life to the cause 
of her country. She left Caen on the 1st of July, arriving 
in Paris on the 3rd. The second day after her arrival she 
went to the Palace Royal, bought a knife, hired a coach 
and drove to the house of Marat. Being denied admit- 
tance, she returned to her hotel and wrote a letter to him, 
in which she claimed to have important news to com- 
municate. Fearing to be again disappointed, she wrote 
another letter still more pressing and took it to Marat's 
residence herself. The Deputy, who at the time lay in his 
bath, ordered her to be immediately admitted; they being 
left alone, this young girl answered faithfully his inquiries 
respecting the proscribed Deputies at Caen. Marat wrote 
their names upon a memorandum book, and, with an air of 
satisfaction, said: "Very good; they shall all goto the 
guillotine!^' "^'To the guillotine I" ejaculated the young 
girl vehemently, and quickly drawing a dagger from her 
bosom, buried it to the hilt in his heart. The single excla- 
mation, ''Help," escaped Marat, and he was no more. 

The last official act of this heartless creature was his 
unnatural demand for General Custin's proscription. On 
the 28th of August, this brave officer, Commander-in-_ 
Chief of the Army of the North, whose only crime consisted 
in having expressed sentiments of horror at the excesses 
of the Mountain, was placed under arrest, dragged before 
the Revolutionary Tribunal, condemned, and executed 
the next day. 

Charlotte Corday suffered the death penalty on the 
15th of July. When brought before the Revolutionary 
Tribunal she was calm and composed. "It is I, who 
killed Marat," she said. She admitted all the charges 
brought against her, with the exception of that of com- 
plicity with the Girondists. " I took council with no 
one," she said. ''I was anxious to bring peace to my 
country." On her way to the scaffold her beautiful face 








BILLAUD-VAREHHBS. 



rniAL yliVT) EXEQUTION OF THE GIRONDISTS. SOS 

betrayed 'no emotion; an angelic smile alone showed to 
the multitude her consciousness of a task well done. 
While she ascended the guillotine her eyes flashed and her 
face still glowed with unafllected pride and pleasure. 

E\ren in her last moments, the handkerchief which 
covered her bosom having been removed, her cheeks v/ere 
suffused with the blush of modesty. She was a descend- 
ant of the great Pierre Corneille. 

This unfortunate woman utterly failed in her purpose, 
as murderers always will. The peace of France was not 
secured, for Marat living was a monster who, if per- 
mitted to run his mad career, could not have surpassed 
Robespierre in wanton atrocity, and, in the nature of 
things, must have eventually received his reward at the 
hands of the executioner. But Marat assassinated was a 
martyred saint. He died poor, five francs being the whole 
sum left of his earthly possessions. This very circum- 
stance endeared him to the masses. To them, his ene- 
mies were the enemies of the people. His death was 
seized upon to justify the taking of other lives. The next 
victims demanded by the Mountain were Marie Antoinette, 
the imprisoned Girondists, and the seventy-three Deputies 
— signers of the protest against the riotous acts of the 2nd 
of June, and against the arbitrary ejectment of the 
twenty-two Girondists from the Convention. 

The seventy-three Deputies were seized in their seats 
and placed under arrest,' the Girondists being turned over 
to Fouquier-Tinville, the Prosecuting Attorney of the 
Revolutionary Tribunal — one of the most evil and perverse 
characters of the Revolution. 

On the 14th of October, and before the Girondists 
were brought to trial, the ex- Queen vv^as taken before this 
tribunal merelyto surround her immolation with the appear- 
ances of a legal proceeding. Her condemnation and exe- 
cution were foreordained, and formed only a part in the 



SOJt THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOL UTJOX 

sanguinary programme adopted hj the ruling faction. 
Whether merited or not, her execution, the same as tliat 
of the King, was as unnecessary as it was cruel. Instead 
of advancing the cause of liberty, its growth was retarded 
in Europe by these wanton acts for almost a century. 
The oppressed people on the continent greatly preferred 
the despotism of their crowned rulers to Danton's and 
Robespierre's conception of liberty. 

On the 3rd of October, Deputy Amar, in the name of 
the Committee of Public Safety, read a report before the 
Convention, charging the accused Deputies with '^ Con- 
spiracy against the ' Unity and Ind ivisibility ^ of the Repub- 
lic, and against the liberty and security of the French 
people.^' Upon hearing the report, based upon expres- 
sions made during debates, and upon writings of public 
concern, the Convention as a body, having lost all dignity 
and self-control, decreed that their most virtuous and 
able colleagues be delivered over to their mortal enemies, 
to stand the insults and mockery of a trial. Of the forty 
members included in the decree, only twenty-one were 
thus surrendered, the rest, for the time being, having 
effected their escape. 

The members placed on trial were Brissot, Lasource, 
Vergniaud, Ducos, Gensonne, Valaze, Lohardy, Gardien, 
Boileau, Vigee, Fonfrede, Lacaze, Duprat, Duperret, 
Mainville, Fauchet, Carra, Duchtael, Antiboul, Sillery, 
and Lesterp-Beauvais. 

On the 24th of October, these Representatives, the 
most illustrious of the National Convention, appeared 
before the Revolutionary Tribunal, seated upon the benches 
as criminals. Their demeanor was calm and dignified but 
without ostentation. The great Virgniaud, serene, and 
proud in the conciousness of his martyrdom; Brissot, the 
philosopher, grave and reflecting, the sad expression upon 
his intellectual face showing how deeply he felt the degrada- 



TPJAL AKD ElECl'TION OE THE OIBOKMSTS. 305 

tion of his country; Gensonne with lips curled in dis- 
dain as his honest eyes fell upon the ignoble judges and 
Fouquier — Tinville, the former detective, now dignified 
with the office of Prosecuting Attorney — these men rep- 
resented a spectacle upon which coming generations will 
look with an admiration not inferior to that bestowed 
upon Socrates and the Gracchii. 

Mercier says, of the Attorney: " Nothing aroused his 
mind but the prospect of inflicting death, and then his 
animation was such that his countenance became in truth 
radiant and expressive." 

And the witnesses who appeared against these men of 
untarnished virtue! The maudlin Hebert, first ticket-ped- 
dler at a small theatre, discharged for dishonesty; then 
lackey, discharged again for stealing, after which he 
lead a life best expressed by the Americanism '^dead 
beat," until conditions became favorable for the publi- 
cation of Pere Duclisne, a disreptuable newspaper more 
virulent and brutal than Marat's UAmidu Peuple; Chabot, 
another 'SSeptembriseur;" a certain Desfieux, and other 
obscure individuals, the scum thrown upon the political 
surface by the Revolution — creatures filled with hate and 
revenge against the noble patriots, whom, upon many 
occasions, they had been compelled to brand as malefactors. 
These were the witnesses the procution confidently 
expected would impeach the honor, the loyalty and patri- 
otism of a Virgniaud, a Brissot, a Gensonne, and the 
others. 

To save appearances, a few men of reputation and 
character had also been summoned as witnesses. These, 
however, knev>^ nothing against the accused, or, upon 
being intimidated, as every conscientious citizen was, 
would make some general charge, such as the fed'eralizing 
tendencies of the Girondists, and their friendship for 
General Dumoui-iez. The whole procedure, however. 



30G TILE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

shows that the " crime " of federalism was all the prose- 
cution desired to prove in order to secure conviction and 
the subsequent public sanction of their verdict. 

The President read the act of accusation, and Pache, 
the Mayor of Paris, was introduced as first witness. 

''While I was Minister/' said he, " I noticed a faction 
in the Convention the acts of which were tending toward 
the ruin of the Republic, and what confirmed my susj)i- 
cion was its demand for an armed departmental force for 
the ])ut'pose of federating the RepiMic. The Commission 
of Twelve/' he continued, "was contrary to all principles, 
and the arrests it ordered had the object of inciting an 
insurrection against the Convention, in order to furnish 
an opportunity to slander Paris" — meaning the expres- 
sion of sentiments against the monsters ordering the mur- 
ders of the 2d of September, as slandering Paris. 

Chaumette, a member of the Convention, and Prose- 
cuting Attorney of the Commune of Paris, a Jacobin of 
good standing, had the audacity to charge the Girond- 
ists with being themselves responsible for the September 
horrors. He also accused them with instigating the pop- 
ular uprisings in the Departments, and of having favored 
the King's appeal to the people of France just previous to 
his execution. 

This latter charge is as curious as it was significant. — • 
To a Jacobin it would appear that ''the people of France/' 
were only the members of the Jacobin Clubs, — absolutely 
insignificant however, when counted by numbers only. 

On the 25th, Destournelles, a former member of the 
Commune, and present Minister of General Contributions, 
testified against the accused to the effect that they sought 
to master the Convention; direct the course of the Revolu- 
tion; calumniate Paris, and excite the Departments against 
her, and, also, that they favored the appeal of the King. 

The infamous Hebert was then called to the witness 
stand. 



1 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF THE GIRONDISTS. S07 

^' There existed/' said he, ''at the beginning of the 
Legislative Assembly, a faction which constantly pro- 
tected the tyrant. The Chief of this faction was Brissot, 
This man has long lived in England where he has acted 
the part of a spy. His rascalities have been committed 
in company with such other criminals as Bailly and Lafa- 
yette." Hebert then accused the Girondists with the 
responsibility of the Cliamp de Mars massacres. A tirade 
of abuse followed these absurd allegations, against Ver- 
gniaud, Guadet, Gensonne and Petion, concluding with 
the astounding accusation that they had conspired for the 
destruction of Eobespierre. This appears to have been 
the most fatal charge yet brought. Chabot, the friend 
of Marat, declared Brissot was the agent of Pitt, of Eng- 
land, and had aided in arming the foreign powers against 
Paris. All were accused of having favored the King's 
appeal to the people, and of having labored to federalize 
France, Chabot concluding with the statement that work 
on the Constitution had been persistently retarded by the 
men on trial." 

To this Brissot replied : " The minutes of the Conven- 
tion will show that, since April 15th, we have urged the 
discussion of the Constitution, upon an average, three 
times a week." 

"Yes," interrupted the President of the Tribunal, 
ironically, ''the British Constitution of Condorcet." To 
which Brissot instantly replied: "This Constitution was 
more democratic than any that had ever existed, that of 
the United States not excepted." 

The President hereupon retorted: "The best proof of 
the truth of their intention to federalize the Eej)ublic is 
Brissot's citation of the Constitution of the United States — 
a citation which was constantly made by all the accused." 

Upon such flimsy charges, upon accusations reflecting 
honor upon the condemned, this noble band of scholars, 



308 TEE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

statesmen and patriots were sentenced at midnight^ Octo- 
ber 30th, to die upon the scaffold. 

The remainder of the night was spent together in 
friendly intercourse, in listening to speeches from Vergni- 
aud and others and in singing the patriotic hymns of 
France. 

The next day, conducted through the thronged streets 
to the Place de la Eevolution, after a farewell embrace, 
one after the other mounted the scaffold and with the 
shout, " Vive la Re23uUigue" ^i\\\ warm upon their lips, 
heroically received the fatal stroke. 



1 



CHAPTEE XXXII. 

EXECUTION OP EX-MAYOR BAILLY AND MADAME ROLAND- 
DESTRUCTION OF THE HEBERTISTS — 
EXECUTION OF DANTON. 

All opposition to the supreme will of the Mountain 
having been removed^ and the voice of every man of rational 
convictions effectually silenced, the socialistic theory of 
regulating by Vorder de Vetati\\Q affairs of the people was 
now to be put in practice. The energy of the Mountain, 
in regulating political opinions, had borne its legitimate 
result, and it was maintained that, with the same degree 
of energy exerted in regulating the business affairs of the 
people, the annoying cry for bread would never more be 
heard in the land. 

Administrative and political " unity '^ could alone be 
maintained by uniformity of aims, customs, habits, time, 
dress and religion. The Convention being the supreme 
power of the Republic, these reforms could only be instituted 
by this body. As this body was considered too cumbersome, 
the Committee of Public Safety was selected for the execu- 
tion of its orders, this committee having been reorganized by 
appointing its members exclusively from the Mountain, 
Robespierre being of the number. 

Unfortunately for the tranquillity of the members of this 
committee, at the very threshold of their duties, they were 
met by the Commune, or city government of Paris, ready to 
dispute their authority. Chaumette, Hebert, the editor, 
and Rousin, Commander of the Revolutionary Army, were 
the leaders of this body, of which Marat had been the dis- 
tinguished head, Their missionary or chief agitator in 

309 



310 THE FOES OF TEE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

the faubourgs and among the rabble was Anacharsis 
Olootz, a crack-brained theorist from Germany, a 
violent atheist, and apostle of communism in property. 

While this struggle was in progress, although opposed 
upon most questions, these two factions were agreed upon 
the necessity of ridding France of all suspects. And who 
were the suspects? Let us examine the list of crimes of 
which a man could be accused, this list beingsent to every 
section in Paris to aid in making arrests: 

''Those who, in the gatherings of the people, dampen 
their ardor through crafty speeches, by cries and threats; 
those who, more prudent, talk mysteriously of the disas- 
ters of the Eepublic, deplore the lot of the people, and 
are always ready to propagate bad news; those who have 
changed their conduct and language according to events; 
who, silent regarding the crimes of the royalists and the 
federalists,declaim against the slightest mistake of the patri- 
ots, and are all indulgence in whatever concerns a mod- 
erate or an aristocrat ; those who pity the farmers and 
the greedy shopkeepers, against whom the law is obliged to 
take action; those Avho, though they have the words liberty, 
republic, andcountry continually in their minds, associate 
with ex-nobles, priests, counter-revolutionists, aristocrats 
and moderates and take an interest in their fate ; those 
who have not taken an active part in anything con- 
nected with the Revolution, and who, to excuse them- 
selves from so doing, plead the payment of their contribu- 
tions, their services in the National Guard by substitute 
or otherwise; those who, though having done nothing 
against liberty, have done nothing for it; those who have not 
attended the meetings of their sections, alleging in excuse 
that they are no speakers, or are prevented by business ] 
those who speak disrespectfully of the constituted author- 
ities, of the executors of the law, of popular (Jacobin) so- 
cietiesj and of the defenders of the people's liberties ; 



EXECUTION OF EX-MAYOn BAILLY, ETG. 311 

those Avho have signed counter-revohitionary petitions^ or 
have frequented anti-civic societies and clubs; those who 
are known to have been sincere partisans of Lafayette, 
and those who marched to the charge in the Champ de 
Mars." 

As would be naturally inferred from this list of crimes, 
the prisons of Paris were soon overflowing, and pri- 
vate residences were taken to confine the suspects, their 
rent to be paid for by the prisoners, 

Collot d^Herbois, Fouclie and Couthon, three of the 
most radical members of the Committee of Public Safety, 
were sent to Lyons, and nearly decimated her inhabitants. 
Toulon, Marseilles, Bordeaux and Caen experienced the 
same fate. At JSTantes hundreds were placed in boats and 
sunk in the river. In Paris the guillotine was set up in 
jiermanence. The first victims were such prominent citi- 
zens, oiitside of the Convention, as had expressed senti- 
ments opposed to this anarchistic method of republican- 
izing France; men whose pens were feared; these were 
silenced by '^removal." If the statement of Allison, the 
historian, is authoritative, Robespierre used this system of 
summary removal for purposes of extortion, and gives 
the following illustration: The Duke of Orleans, being 
despised by theEoyalists on account of the betrayal of his 
relatives, Louis XVI. and tlie Qieen, and distrusted by 
the Jacobins, no objection was offered to his '"^ removal." 
"When led out to the place of execution," says Allison, 
" he gazed for a time, with a smile upon his countenance, 
on the Palais Royal, the scenes of his former orgies; he 
was detained about a quarter of an hour in front of this 
palace by order of Robespierre, wJio had in vain asked his 
danghter's ha7id in marriage, andhad proriiised, if lietoould 
relent in this eoafremity, to excite a tumult which ivould save 
his life. Ambitious and treacherous as the Duke was, he 
ret^ilied too much honor to save himself at such a sacrifice^, 



312 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

and was kept waiting twenty minutes before allowed to 
continue his journey to the scaffold^ in the hope that at 
the last moment he would relent." 

Among those who had more especially incurred the 
displeasure of the ^' patriots/^ and who, in the field of 
political and scientific literature, had acquired world-wide 
reputations, were ex-Mayor Bailly and Madame Roland. 
Their ** removal^' was not determined upon, however, to 
gratify a sentiment of revenge, but as a matter of pru- 
dence. The pen in such hands v/as in danger of supplant- 
ing the sword, ''and although the freedom of the press 
must be unrestricted,'^ said Eobespierre, after the execu- 
tion of the Girondists, "but it must not be employed to 
destroy liberty." These able and incisive writers were a 
menace to the peace of Deputy Robespierre. As Madame 
Roland was the most to be feared, she Avas selected to die 
first. 

Of that noble band of patriots, representing the 
Grironde, the most central and interesting figure was Madame 
Roland. We have seen that in the seclusion of her study, 
while presiding at her husband's unpretentious table, sur- 
rounded by the scholars and statesmen of France, she 
remained a true woman. Consistent with her nature, she 
died one. The following picture of her appearance on the 
day of her trial and condemnation is given by an eye- 
witness: 

''Although past the jDrime of life, she was a magnifi- 
cent looking woman, tall and elegant in form, with an 
expression infinitely superior to that usually found in 
Avomen beaming from her large, black eyes, at the same 
time forcible and mild. The day on Avhich she was to 
meet her fate, Avith solicitous care she had robed herself in 
a white gown; her long, black hair hung in rich masses to 
her waist. After her sentence she returned to her prison 
with unfeigned cheerfulness. By a sign that Avas not to 




TALLIES. 



L^nCUirON OF fJX-MAYOR BAILLY, ETC. 313 

bo mistaken, she conveyed to us the information that she 
was to die." 

Truer words were never uttered than those which 
escaped her lijDS while passing the statue of liberty, on 
her way to execution. ''Oh Liberty, Liberty! What crimes 
are committed in thy name!" Upon receiving the terrible 
news of his wife's death, M. Eoland, who had accepted 
asylum at the house of a friend near Rouen, at once 
determined upon suicide. A short time after, he was 
discovered at the foot of a tree near the highway, bleed- 
ing from wounds made by his own sword. 

This honest man, by his exposure of the misdeeds of 
the Commune, in his capacity of Minister of the Interior, 
had drawn upon himself the bitterest hatred of the Jaco- 
bins, and sooner or later, must have been called to 
answer his charges against them with his life. 

The next victim whose quiet existence disturbed the 
dreams of the " patriots " was M. Bailly, the first Mayor 
after the Eevolution, and the intimate friend of General 
Lafayette. A scholar and writer, he had rendered 
eminent service to the cause of freedom. While Mayor of 
Paris, his chief occupation consisted in devising means and 
carrying them into execution for the provisioning of the 
city. He was remarkable for his gentleness of disposition, 
his moderation and philanthropy; nevertheless he was an 
enemy to wrong-doers, and an outspoken opponent to 
the violence and excesses of the Commune andtheMount- 
ain. He wielded not only an able, but a fearless pen. 
All sorts of absurd charges were trumped up in order to 
stifle all sympathy for his feeble condition and to arouse the 
rabble against him, so that when the aged man was led to 
his doom, this same multitude, which he had often saved 
from starvation, hooted at and insulted him as he passed 
on, while others struck him with sticks and pelted him with 
mud, not ceasing their brutal barbarities until their victim 



SlI^ 



THE FOLS Cr TKL FEENCII HE VOLUTION. 



was fastened to the fatal plank by tlie executioner. The 
Girondists who had escaped to the provinces were pursued 
with fiendish relentlessness, and finally driven to suicide or 
into the hands of the executioner. 

The "j)atriots" considered themselves not only the 
ablest of statesmen^, but men of military genius. Their com- 
mittees directed the armies, issued orders to the old gen- 
erals, insisted upon this and that movement, commanded 
attacks, when attack was certain destruction; in short, 
raised havoc with the army, and reverses and severe losses 
in the field were the natural consequences. If, perchance, 
a general, for some reason or other, incurred their dis- 
pleasure, he was summoned before the Eevolutionary Tri- 
bunal and summarily disposed of. General Custine was thus 
wantonly sacrificed, and on the 25th and 26th of Novem- 
ber, respectively. General Brunet and the victorious Gen- 
eral Houchard were likewise sent to the scaffold. 

To complete the disorder and intensify the feeling of 
insecurity in commercial affairs, a number of tradesmen 
and speculators were arrested as suspects for violations of 
the "maximum" decree. This price-regulating ordinance 
had proven a great hardship to the retailers buying their 
goods before the decree was issued, and at a higher price 
than that fixed by the decree. Fearing to be ruined, many 
had closed their shops. The Convention, in other words 
the Commune, and the Committee of Public Safety, now 
seem to have vied with each other to prove which could 
reach the highest degree of absurdity. 

" The Commune," says M. Thiers, "obliged every dealer 
to state the quantity of goods he had on hand, the orders 
for more, and the time of their expected arrival. Every 
shop-keeper transacting business for a year, who had 
either relinquished it or allowed it to languish was declared 
a suspect and imprisoned as such. To prevent confusion 
and the accumulations arising from an over desire to lay 



BXECITTIOJY OF EX-MAYOR BAILLT, ETC. 315 

ill a stock of goods, the Commune decxeed tliat the con- 
sumer must only buy of the retailer, and the retailer of 
the wholesaler, the quantity which each should be allowed 
to order being also fixed by law. Thus the retail grocer 
could not buy more than twenty-five pounds of sugar at a 
time and the tavern-keeper only twelve, the Eevolution- 
ary Committee being charged with the delivery of these 
purchasing tickets to the tradesmen, etc. As the throng 
about the bakers' doors still continued undiminished, it 
was decided that those who had come last should be 
served first; but this regulation served neither to lessen 
the tumult nor to repress the eagerness of -the customer 
The people complaining that the worst flour v»^as reserved 
for them, it was resolved, that, in the city of Paris, there 
should in the future be made but one sort of bread, this 
to be composed of three-fourths wheaten flour and one- 
fourth rye."' 

The Convention after a time tried its hand also at 
the regulating business. It decreed that a statement 
should be made by the joroducer, of the cost of price of 
goods in 1790, at the place of production; to this price, 
one-third was to be added, oioing to circumstances; then a 
fixed sum for transportation to the place of consumption; 
then five per cent, for the profit of the wholesale dealer, 
and ten for the retailer. The local adminstrations of the 
consumers, were to superintend what was produced and 
consumed, thus placing three-fourths of the private busi- 
ness of the people of France in the hands, of officials. 
The general supervision of this patronalistic system "was 
placed in the hands of a commission of three, appointed 
by the Convention. It was to see that the tariff of 
prices be strictly adhered to; that the commission perform 
its duties; that a statement of the articles of provision 
and subsistence throughout France be forthwith com- 
pleted; that it order the transfer of provisions froixi one 



316 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

department to another^, and fix the requisitions for the 
armies. 

The next thing to regulate was the circulating medium. 
A decree forbidding the traffic in specie had long been in 
operation; but, at this juncture, a law was enacted for- 
bidding bargains to be made promising payment in silver 
or paper, and, as the jjeople began to hoard specie, it was 
decreed that hidden gold, silver or jewels, if discovered, 
should belong partly to the state and partly to the 
informer. Unable to secrete or trade with these, under 
threat of being declared a suspect, the people began to 
prefer the assignats, and, outbidding the Convention in 
its regulating mania, some of the commoners ordered 
specie to be brought in to be exchanged for assignats. 
One excellent reform was brought about during this time 
of general regulation, "hj order of the State. ■'^ This was 
the introduction of the decimal system in weights and 
measures. An attempt was about to be made to apply the 
decimal system to time. The course of nature, however, 
having proved an insurmountable obstacle, the moon per- 
sisting in her twelve revolutions a year, the old twelve- 
month system had to be maintained; still, not to be van- 
quished entirely, the month was divided into three decades 
of ten days, each of ten hours, the tenth to be a day of 
rest and recreation. The months were named for the 
seasons in which they occur. For instance, the year 
began with the autumn, and the first month was called 
Vendemiaire, etc. But the whole twelve months only 
made three hundred and sixty daj^s ! What was to be 
done Avith the five extra periods of time? They were 
called the Sans-Culottides, and were set apart for national 
rejoicings or holidays. 

Political opinions, business affairs, and the time of the 
people having been regulated, reformed,and made uniform, 
by order of Eobespierre's faction in the Convention, the 



EXECVTION OF EX-MATOR BAILLt, ETC. 317 

Hebertists controlling the Commune set about '^ dethron- 
ing the King of Heaven, the same as they had dethroned 
the King of France." With the guillotine before their 
eyes, they compelled the Bishop of Paris and his vicara 
to abjure Christianity at the bar of the Convention. 
Through the efforts of Chaumette, the Cathedral of 
Notre Dame was converted into a '' Temple of Eeason,'' 
and on the 10th of November the Festival of Eeason was 
held with imposing ceremonies. All churches were com- 
pelled to either close their doors or be transformed into 
" Temples of Eeason," 

Robespierre, whose early training had been of a relig- 
ious character, denounced these innovations at the Jaco- 
bin Club, declaring atheism to be the religion of the aris- 
tocrats, and obnoxious to the common people. " The idea 
of a Grod," said he, *'is popular with the masses, and if 
no God exists, we must make one." 

A division in the faction of '* Regulators" soon 
became apparent. Danton had grown skeptical of their 
poAver to establish a rej)ublic upon the system of force. 
Agreeing with Eobespierre in his opposition to the athe- 
istic comedy now being played by the Hebertists, he was 
as much opposed to the indiscriminate slaughter inaugu- 
rated all over the country by the decree of the suspects, 
Tii:s terrible law had come grimly forward to torment its 
inventors. 

Married to an attractive young widow, Danton had re- 
tired to the country to spend a few months in her society. 
Upon his return to the cajDital, it was noticed that his 
views had been considerably modified. He who had car- 
ried his war against the Girondists to the steps of the 
scaffold ; who had been the prime mover in all the acts of 
violence committed by the Mountain since the 10th of 
August, 1792, now began openly to express sentiments of 
regret at the unwarranted execution of these Deputies, 



CIS THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

advocating tlie formation of a legall3^-constitnted author- 
ity v/ith well-defined laws to supplant the autocratic and 
arbitrary Revolutionary Tribunal. In his less sanguinary 
views he was joined by some of the most influential mem- 
bers of the Mountain. 

At this time, the fall of 1793, Robespierre occupied the 
most conspicuous place in the Convention. His austere 
manner, in imitation of the ancient republicans, and his 
seeming devotion to the interests of the people, as repre- 
sented in the Jacobin organizations, had made him the 
incorruptible idol of this element. Their admiration and 
support had been so demonstrative and unfailing dur- 
ing the whole course of the Revolution, that he had be- 
come fixed in the belief that he was, indeed, endowed with 
all the attributes they claimed for him; his virtue, his prob- 
ity, his devotion to the cause of liberty, were beyond re- 
proach. He probably never said, ''La Revolution c'est 
moi," but he believed in his potency and destiny with as 
much sincerity as did Louis XIV., when he said, " U etat 
c^est moi.'' 

The theory of Rousseau, that human misery is the result 
of human depravity, Robespierre had accepted, and be- 
lieving that vice and immorality could only be obliterated 
from the face of the earth by force, he had used force. The 
two factions which had now arisen, Danton and his fol- 
lowing on one side, and the Hebertists on the other, stood 
in a menacing attitude to the fulfillment of Robespierre's 
designs. 

Danton was against the continuance of the Revolution- 
ary Tribunal; Robespierre was in favor of it. In support 
of his stand, he said in the Convention, ''The people can 
be influenced by reason, but the enemies of the people can 
only be influenced by terror. If the source of popular 
government in peace be virtue, the source of pojDular gov- 
ernment in revolution is both virtue and terror. Terror 




COUTHOH. 



BXEGUTION OF EX-MAYOR BAILLT, ETG. 319 

without virtue is fatal; virtue without terror is powerless. 
Subdue, then, the enemies of liberty with terror." 

Charging the two factions opposed to him with dan- 
gerous heresies — heresies threatening the existence of the 
Eepublic — one through weakness, the other with advocat- 
ing extreme atheistic doctrines — Robespierre, on the loth 
of December, opened his attack on the latter, composed 
of the Hebertists, in a craftily-worded speech, closing with 
the demand for a decree declaring unlawful *^'all outrages 
and measures against the freedom of worship." In con- 
sequence, a few days after, Hebert, whose paper had 
received immense subsidies from the Commune, Clootz, 
Eousin and others of this faction were brought before the 
Revolutionary Tribunal, sentenced and executed. Robes- 
pierre's path was thus cleared of one dangerous obstruction. 
Three months of wrestling with the Dantonists now fol- 
lowed. Its leader was reproached with being a licentious, 
corruptible man, with leanings toward moderation for 
selfish and reactionary purposes. 

Danton's faction had Desmoulins' newspaper behind it. 
Its columns were pointed and instructive. To illustrate 
the condition of France it frequently reproduced de- 
scriptions of ancient political situations. For example, 
in likening Robespierre to Nero, he quoted the following 
from Tacitus: 

''Everything gave offense to the tyrant. "Was a citizen 
popular? He was a rival to the prince and might excite 
civil war — he was suspected. Did he, on the contrary, 
shun popularity and keep at home? A life so private caused 
him to be observed — he was suspected. Was he rich? 
There was imminent danger lest the people be corrupted 
by his bounty — he was suspected. Was he poor? , He 
must be strictly watched, because there is no one so alert 
as he wlw has nothing — he was suspected. Was he of 
grave and melancholy demeanor? The cause of his sad- 



320 THB foes of the FliENCH RE VOL UTIOM. 

ness was the public prosperity — he was suspected. Did 
a citizen live merrily? It was because the prince was sick — 
he was suspected. Was he a philosopher^ poet, or orator? 
He coveted more reputation than those who governed — 
he was suspected. Lastly, had he acquired reputation in 
war? He was only the more dangerous — he was suspected. ■'' 

Such personal attacks, in the nature of things, could 
not long be borne by Robespierre, and Editor Desmoulins 
was expelled from the Jacobin Club. Then followed 
Barere's attack upon the faction in the Convention, in 
the name of the Committee of Public Safety. 

On the 30th of March, 1794, Danton^s arrest was dis- 
cussed in the committee. When informed of the fact, he 
exclaimed with the roar of a lion, "They dare not!" 
Nevertheless, that very night, himself, Oamille Desmou- 
lins, Philipeaux, Lacroix, and the victorious General 
Westerman were taken from their homes and conducted 
to the Luxembourg. Danton was caged. In the beating 
of his imprisoned spirit against its iron bars, he "begged 
pardon of God for having been the means of establishing 
the Revolutionary Tribunal, but it was not instituted tliat 
it might become the scourge of humanity." In other 
words, it was not instituted to destroy its inventors. 

An ineffectual effort was made by Legender to alloAv 
the arrested members a hearing before the Convention. 
The request was defeated by Robespierre. A few minutes 
later Saint Just appeared in the tribune and read the 
Report of Accusation against the Dantonists. The Con- 
vention decreed their transfer before the Revolutionary 
Tribunal. There they appeai'ed proud and disdainful. 
Upon hearing his sentence, Danton exclaimed fiercely : 

" We are sacrificed to further the ambition of a few 
cowardly brigands ; but they will not long enjoy the fruits 
of their victory. / drag Rohesijierre — Robespierre follo%uii 
me!" 



EXECUTION OF EK-MAYOR BAILLT, ETC. S21 

The next day they were guillotined. Danton had no 
right to lay his fall at the door of Eobespierre. By 
encouraging and using a Marat he prepared the way for 
a Eobespierre. For creating the Eevolutionary Tribunal 
and aiding in formulating the Law of Suspects, he 
deserved a thousand deaths. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

REGULATING RELIGION — KOBESPIERRE AND HIS IMMEDIATE 
FOLLOWERS EXECUTED-THE REIGN OP TERROR ENDED. 

The destruction of the Dantonists left the Committee 
of Public Safety, with Robespierre at its head, to perfect 
its work of centralization, ^' or unity/' without opposition. 

Heretofore, the consummate actor, Robespierre, had 
posed as the embodiment of virtue and the unwavering 
champion of the common people. But he never had 
had a policy of his own, or was the advocate of a dis- 
tinctive political system. Nor does he in his subsequent 
public career appear to have had the intention of organiz- 
ing a party based upon practical reforms. His ambition 
took another direction. He aimed at founding a sect 
upon the philosophical system of Rousseau, of which he 
would become the modern prophet. His speeches, all 
carefully prepared, are the best index of the man. Full 
of glittering generalities concerning " civic virtues, 
probity and modesty, '^ with frequent allusions to his own 
known merits, accompanied by fulsome praises "of the 
people," always vociferously appreciative in the galleries, 
they show him to have had no other end in view than self- 
elevation thr.ough the ordinary methods of a common 
demagogue. Now, that the clear-sighted, positive and 
ponderous Danton had been removed, and the witty, 
blistering pen of Demoulins was silenced in death, Robes- 
pierre could fearlessly step forward with his absurd pro- 
posals for further regulating the affairs of the Republic. 

Consequently, on the 7th of May, after several weeks 
of seclusion and meditation, he aj)peared before the Con- 




ST. JUST. 



REGULATING RELIGION. 323 

vention with a laboriously prepared discourse, in which 
he appeared in his new role of social and religious 
reformer. He began by assuring his hearers that France 
had preceded Europe by a march of at least two thousand 
years, and that although existing among the other nations 
of the earth, she appeared to belong to another sphere. 
Asa specimen, and to show what little common sense was 
necessary at the tim.e to acquire oratorical renown, the fol- 
lowing extract is taken from this remarkable speech : 

" Yes, the delicious land which we inhabit, and which 
nature caresses with so much predilection, is made to be 
the domain of liberty and of happiness ; and this people, 
at once so open to feeling and to generous pride, are born for 
glory and for virtue. 0, my native country ! If fortune 
had caused my birth in some region remote from thy 
shores, I would not the less have addressed constant 
prayers to Heaven in thy behalf, and would have wept 
over the recital of thy combat and thy virtues. My soul 
would have followed with restlesss ardor every change of 
this eventful Kevolution. I would have envied the lot of 
thy natives — of thy Eepresentatives. But I am myself a 
native of France, I am myself a Representative. Intoxi- 
cating rapture ! sublime people, receive the sacrifice 
of my entire being ! Happy is he who is born in the midst 
of Thee. More happy he avIio can lay down his life for 
thy Av elf are ! '' 

"■ When we read such iniserabie stuff, '^ very pointedly 
remarks Sir Walter Scott, ^' and consider the crimes which 
such oratory occasioned, it reminds us of the opinion of 
a Mohammedan doctor, who assured Bruce that the Degial, 
or Anti- Christ, was to appear in the form of an ass, and 
that the multitudes were to follow him to hell, attracted 
by the music of his braying.^' 

Eobespierre then made some eulogistic remarks about 
his patron saint, the author of the ''Social Contract,'* 



S2Jl^ THE FOES OF THE FEENUH RE VOL UTION. 

closing his address with a cowardly attack upon the 
memory of the noble Condorcet, whom terror had driven to 
suicide, and also upon his former associate, Danton, whom 
he had basely betrayed. This exhibition fully showed 
the ferocity and vindictiveness of the man's character. 

Continuing, he thus admonishes the Convention: 

" Repose, therefore, in tranquillity upon the immutable 
basis of justice. Beware of the intoxicating effect of suc- 
cess. Let us be terrible in reverses, but modest in victory, 
and let us plant joy and happiness in our midst through 
wisdom and morality ! " 

When it is considered that while this greatest of charla- 
tans was thus enlarging upon the rapture of being born in 
France, and upon the joy her inhabitants must feel at being 
able *' to dwell in his delicious midst," the guillotine was 
standing permanent in every large center of population in 
the land, and that not three squares from where he stood 
the victims of his cruelty, his fanaticism and his excessive 
ambition, were executed at the rate of fifty a day, — the 
degree of this man's mendacity may be conjectured. 

It is almost superfluous to add that the speech was 
applauded by the Convention, since refusal to do so might 
have placed the name of the unenthusiastic upon the list 
of the suspects. It was, also, ordered printed in all modern 
languages, and 200,000 copies were actually distributed, 
strange as it may seem. 

Robespierre's report of the Committee of Public Safety, 
declaring : " The French people recognizes a Supreme 
Being, and believes in the immortality of the soul," was 
thereupon sanctioned by a decree. It was further decreed 
that a number of festivals be held, instituted for the pur- 
pose of reminding the citizen of his duty to Divinity, and 
for the purpose of strengthening his own dignity. The 
first was to be devoted to the " Supreme Being ; " the 
next to " Humanity, " one to " Liberty and Equality, " 



REGULATING BELIGrON. 326 

another to ^'Patriotisms"' another to '' Justice/' to 
''Truth/' to "Modesty/' to "Friendship/' and last but 
not least, to "Glory/' 

The same evening Eobespierre went to the Jacobin 
Club, where he received an ovation, and was invited to 
repeat his speech. The rabble became thoroughly crazed 
over the new prophet who was to pave the way for the 
millennium of France* 

On the 5th of June, Robespierre was elected President 
of the Convention, in order that he might act as high 
priest of the great festival to the " Supreme Being," 
which had been fixed by the Assembly to take place on the 
9th of the same month. On the appointed day, Paris 
having been notified by the Committee of Public Safety to 
put her best foot forward, the whole city, young maidens 
and matrons, old men and youths, all turned out in fes- 
tival attire to participate in the solemn fete. 

The windows of the houses the procession was to pass 
were profusely decorated with flowers and flags. Early in 
the morning Eobespierre hastened to the Tuileries, where 
an immense concourse of people had assembled. Upon 
entering the Convention, the hero was received with wild 
acclamations. Thereupon the members filed out and took 
seats upon an amphitheatre erected in front of the Tuil- 
eries. Here Robespierre addressed the people again upon 
the subject of virtue and human wisdom, closing the cere- 
monies with the burlesque performance of setting fire to 
a monument representing Atheism, Ambition and Egotism. 
The procession was now formed, the Convention leading. 
Robespierre, in light nankin breeches, blue coat, a sash of 
the National colors tied around his waist, a hat surmounted 
by tri-colored feathers, and an immense bouquet of flowers, 
ears of wheat, and branches of fruit in his hand, at fifteen 
paces in front, opened the solemn march toward the 
Champ de Mars, where more oratory was indulged in. Robes- 



326 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION. 

pierre now stood apparently at the height of mortal ambi- 
tion, religiously and politically the Czar of all the French. 

'^Itisbut a step from the Caj)itol to the Tarpeian 
Eock/^ some member of the Convention is said to have 
remarked, as the shades of night gathered over Paris, and 
the prophecy was soon to be fulfilled. The Mountain and 
the Committee of Public Safety were already beginning to 
show signs of discontent and division. Tallien, Barras, 
Legender and Fouche had antagonized Robespierre upon 
several occasions, and evidence was not wanting to show 
that he intended to rid himself of these, as he had done with 
Hebert and Danton. The majority of the Convention 
felt insecure, and what was most significant, the people 
themselves appeared to have grown weary of seeing and 
hearing of the daily increasing butcheries. They began to 
shut up their shops and windows during the time the carts 
of the condemned were passing. A new decree, conferring 
upon the Committee of Public Safety additional powers for 
more summary executions, had struck Paris with terror. 
Representatives as well as the people in the streets met 
each other with anxious glances, followed by whispered 
expressions of dismay and fear, and soon the high priest 
found his circle of intimates reduced to his two satellites 
Saint Just and Couthon. Conspiracy followed conspir- 
acy. The majority of the Committee of Public Safety 
was against Robespierre, but having replaced Pache by his 
pliant instrument, Fleuriot, in the mayoralty, Henriot, 
the commander of the troops being absolutely reliable, 
and the Jacobins devoted to him unto death, his position 
seemed impregnable, and, from the following communica- 
tion by Henriot to Fleuriot, dated July 4, 1794, it would 
seem that a concocted plan to strike a decisive blow at the 
Convention had then already been determined upon. 

*' Comrade. Thou wilt be satisfied with me and 
the manner in which I shall conduct myself; I could have 



REGULATING RELIGION. 3S7 

wished, the secret of the ojjeratioii was confined to our two 
selves. Scoundrels should know nothing of it. Safety and 
Fraternity ! " 

On the 22d of July, Eobespierre thus prepared the 
Jacobins for action ; adverting to the attacks he had 
been exposed to on the part of the Committee, he said: 
'' No trace must remain of faction or of crime in any place 
whatever.'^ He then advised them ^o proceed to the 
Convention as they had done on June 2nd, the year 
before, intimating that Henriot was ready to uphold the 
"patriots " as he had upheld them on that day. After an 
absence of several weeks from the sittings of the Conven- 
tion, at last on the 27th of July, he appeared in the Tri- 
bune reading a lengthy defense, in which he eulogized 
himself as usual, and denounced the Committees. The 
address and the recommendation " to purify the Com- 
mittee of Public Safety,'' were received with studied 
silence, until the motion for printing the speech was 
made, when voices in opposition were heard. Still the 
proposition to print prevailed. But the assault upon the 
dictator must now be made or the Convention was lost. 
Cambon led the storming column. ' ^ It is time to speak the 
whole truth," said he boldly. '^A single individual has 
paralyzed the Convention; this individual is Eobespierre." 
Billaud-Yarennes then jumped to his feet, and cried out: 
" The mask must he torn from whatever face it conceals!" 

He was followed by half a dozen other Deputies, who had 
finally plucked up courage to face the tyrant. 

In the evening Robespierre repeated his discourse at 
the club of the Jacobins, and urged them to be ready for 
action on the next day. The opposition had not been idle. 
The Dantonists of the Mountain had succeeded in obtain- 
ing a promise from the Eight and the Centre to support 
them in their attack upon Eobespierre, and, thus rein- 
forced, they were ready for the impending conflict. 



SB8 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

On the memorable 28th of July, 9th Thermidor, 
Robespierre appeared early in the Convention. He had 
hardly taken his seat, however, when Billaud Varennes 
rushed to a second attack, and in a fiery speech revealed 
the plot of the Jacobins to attack the Convention and 
proclaim Eobespierre dictator. At this junction Tallien 
sprang to his feet exclaiming: "I perceive with pleasure 
that the conspirators are unmasked. Yesterday I was 
present at the session of the Jacobins, and saw the army 
of the new Cromwell mustering, and I armed myself 
with this poinard, (swinging it) to plunge it into his 
bosom, if the National Convention has not the firmness 
to decree his accusation." He asked for the arrest of 
Henriot, which was almost unanimously voted. Billaud 
Varennes now demanded the accusation of Eobespierre's 
accomplices, but Tallien again turned to the attack. In 
vain Robespierre attempts to reply; his voice was drowned 
in cries of *'the tyrant;" fists are shaken in his face; he 
turns to the right, implores, supplicates, and cries with 
fear and agony; he rushes from one to the other, but is 
driven back with deafening yells, and, as a last effort he 
turns to President Thuriot, who persists in ringing his 
bell, and exclaims: *^For the last time. President of 
assassins, wilt thou allow me to speak?" His features 
betrayed his desperation and his voice grew thick, as the 
terrible words rang in his ears: *'The blood of Danton 
chokes you." His arrest is demanded and voted with 
loud exclamations of assent. Couthon, Lebas, Saint 
Just and the younger Robespierre share his fate. They 
are led from the hall, but are rescued by the Jacobins, 
who take them to the Hotel de Ville. 

With the -Commune, the control of the troops and 

the Jacobins still at the disposition of Robespierre, he 

.might yet have crushed his enemies in the Convention, 

buthevvas not a man of action, and the most urgent 



:,'£:'''-2>»s'"->r''l/ 




CARHOT. 



REGULATING RELIGION. 329 

remonstrances to show himself to the people, to call upon 
them to rise in insurrection received no response from 
him — -the man was horror-stricken; in short, a coward. 

He had temporized and hesitated until now it was too 
late. Still, but for an apparently insignificant incident, 
Robespierre might have come out of this conflict victo- 
rious. The cannoniers, who had been stationed with their 
pieces loaded and pointed upon the Convention, refused 
to apply the matches when commanded to do so by Hen- 
riot. This mishap, for which the conspirators were not 
prepared, disconcerted their leaders and encouraged the 
Convention to assume the offensive. It outlawed Henriot, 
and at midnight some of the members appeared in the 
crowd assembled before the Hotel de Ville, expecting the 
armed sections, and while reading the proclamation out- 
lawing the Commune, the cry, Vivre la Convention, was 
raised. The crowd soon dispersed, and when the troops 
of the Convention drew up in front of the Hotel de Ville, 
they found the Place de Greve deserted. The caged ter- 
rorists, finding themselves abandoned and escape impos- 
sible, turned upon each other and upon themselves to end 
their miserable lives. Henriot was set upon by Coffinhal 
and thrown out of the window. Robespierre himself 
received a pistol shot shattering his jaw; whether inflicted 
by himself or from some of the attacking party is not 
satisfactorily established. Lebas succeeded in blowing 
out his brains; Couthon stabbed himself, but not with 
sufficient force to end his life ; Robespierre's brother threw 
himself from the third-story window, but survived his fall; 
Robespierre was placed upon a litter and carried to the 
Convention, and from there to the Conciergerie, where he 
was exposed to the invectives and curses of the public. The 
Convention having ordered them to be executed as out- 
laws without the preliminaries of a trial, Robespierre and 
twenty-one of his accomplices, among these his brother. 



330 THE FOES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

Ooutlion, Saint Just, Ilenriot, and Mayor Fleuriot were 
guillotined the next day, the 29th of July, 1794, at five 
o'clock in the evening. 

With Eobespierre's death, the Eeign of Terror may be 
said to have terminated. This circumstance alone should 
silence those of his panegyrists who claim that he was 
not its principal author. Whether or not he was chiefly 
responsible for the wholesale butcheries committed during 
the period of his ascendency, or whether he divided the 
responsibility with his associates, is of small historical con- 
sequence. 

A subject of transcendent interest, however, is the 
phenomenon of a small number of absolutely inconse- 
quential adventurers, so completely paralyzing the humane 
instincts and noble impulses of a brave and generous peo- 
ple as to make them appear the silent participants in these 
horrors. 

The most eminent writers of the Eevolution endeavor 
to explain this phenomenon on the plea of necessity. 
France, at that epoch, they say, was threatened with 
destruction by enemies of the Eepublic from within and 
by a powerful coalition of potentates from without, and, 
consequently. Jacobin energy (free use of the guillotine) 
was necessary to save France from destruction by both. 

To admit the truth of this proposition is to question 
the love of liberty and patriotism of the French people — 
that is to say, it was not enthusiasm for their regenerated 
country, but the dread of the guillotine that moved them 
to fly to the threatened standard of the Eepublic; that 
their commanders were not men of military genius, 
inspired by the noble impulses of soldierly pride and 
ambition, and that the victories they had achieved were the 
result of fear created by ^'Jacobin energy.'' The truth 
of the matter, hoAvever, is that the greatest reverses of the 
Army, both on the frontier and in the Vendee, belong to 



REGULATING RELIGION. 331 

the periods of 1793 and 1794, when the generals were 
harrassed, interfered with and threatened with disgrace 
and death by presumptions and vindictive commissioners 
of the Eevolutionary Committee, while almost all of her 
important successes were accomplished before and after 
this period. 

The success of arming and equipping more than a 
million of men and of organizing them into armies, gen- 
erally attributed to ''Jacobin energy/' belongs chiefly to 
one of the members of the Com.mittee of Public Safety, 
M. Carnot, the ancestor of the present chief executive of 
the French Eepublic. M. Carnot was opposed to Robes- 
peirre's policy and repeatedly expressed his disgust at its 
excesses ; all his time and energy, however, were devoted 
to the military administration, over which he had almost 
the exclusive control. 

No, this plea of necessity can not be admitted, and, out 
of respect to the people of France, should not be made. 
Why seek the truth so far away when proof is close at 
hand? The Reign of Terror was the legitimate result of 
anarchy, which, on the 2nd of June, 1792, gained control of 
France, when the National Convention was overawed by a 
lawless mob, encouraged and supported by a military sa- 
trap. The floodgates of anarchy once opened, demagog- 
ism necessarily reigned supreme, while true patriotism and 
statesmanship were treated as the attributes of aristocrats 
and suspects. Of all the demagogues of that epoch, Robes- 
pierre was unquestionably the most astute, and, conse- 
quently, the most successful. Centralization had worked 
out its logical conclusion. It had rendered Jacobin usurp- 
ation possible, and by controlling the Jacobins, Robespierre 
controlled France. 



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